The Lightning Flash of the Leaf
by SAO Survivor Buraddori
Summary: Naruto Uzumaki & Bradley Furasshu have been friends their whole live's even though the entire village appears to despise them. Together they are unstoppable both with their own unique abilities, will they rise the ranks of the ninja and someday become Hokage? A re-telling of Naruto with an OC, as they go through the major story arcs of the amazing series.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Notes: Hi and this is my first fanfiction. I haven't really got much to say except that I enjoyed writing this chapter, I'll enjoy writing more and I hope you people reading enjoy it too. I also just want to thank a friend 4N1M3F4L1F3 helping with bits of this chapter. Well I'll stop now. Enjoy!**

 **I don't own Naruto all rights belong to Misashi Kishimoto**

 **The Lightning Flash Of the Leaf**

 **Chapter 1: A Demon & An Outsider**

12 years ago the Nine Tailed Fox suddenly appeared, the ninja of the Hidden Leaf rose up to defend their friends, family and their village. Many lives were lost and in the end the demon fox was stopped by one ninja... The Fourth Hokage. Or so the villagers thought. Two other ninja were also responsible for the defeat of the Nine Tails. They entered the battle without anyone seeing them, as if in a flash. With the speed of these two ninja, the might of the Fourth Hokage and the incredible skill of all three shinobi they were nearly able to completely destroy the Nine Tails. Tragically as the fight lasted many hours the two ninja and the Fourth Hokage were forced to give up their lives in order to protect the village. But not before the Fourth was able to seal away the Fox inside the body of a human. The body of a newborn baby.

In their final moments the two ninja joined the Fourth as he was about to try sealing the demon away, one of the two ninja pulled away her headgear revealing stunning long ginger hair, she took away a bundle of cloth wrapped under her clothes that revealed to be carrying a baby inside. She held the baby close to her heart and whispered: " We may not get to see you grow up, we may not get to see you grow stronger, but we will always be watching over you my son" She said with a slight break in her voice as she was trying to hold back her tears. The second of the two ninja pulled down his cloth mask from his nose and took off his silver frame blue lens goggles and then knelt down beside his wife and son. " Listen son this is a tough world and I imagine that both you and that blonde kid will have it rough. But never give up, survive! This world is just a game of survival, and the game can be easier if you have good friends that you will look out for and they'll look out for you. Make sure to train hard then play hard" He said with a small grin as he turned and looked at his wife. " Your father can run his mouth faster than he can actually run" She giggled but then started to cry "No child should have to grow up without their parents it.. it's just not right"! Now tears were visible as she hugged her child, even the male ninja started to let small tears well up in his eyes. "It isn't fair" the two crying ninja looked up to see the Fourth Hokage holding the other baby in his arms. " This boy won't have the luxury of having parents either, I would want him to be seen as a hero by the village for what I'm about to do to him, but I know that the villagers won't see it that way. They will ridicule him and shun him away leaving him completely alone" The male ninja then got up holding his child and walked toward the Hokage. " Then they should look out for each other, if they are both looked down upon then they'll have each other to watch their backs" In the distance they could hear the Nine Tails getting closer to their location. The Fourth looked towards the female ninja for her say in this and although she had tears in her eyes she was smiling knowing that her son would have a friend that he could depend on.

The Fox was now in view,glaring at the ninjas as it drew closer. The fourth then summoned the alter to start sealing the nine tails inside. " You're going to have to buy me time, so if you have any final words to say to your son now is the time" The two ninja laid their child in the safety of the alter next to the blonde haired child, the father tucked his goggles and mask inside his sons clothes then the mother put their village headband just under the childs chin and they both said simultaneously: " Goodbye our son, may you be as fast as a lightning strike and as strong as an electrical surge, we will always love you." They kissed their son one more time and then in the blink of the Hokages eye they were already atop the the Nine Tails. "Ready? This is for you Bradley of the Furasshu!" The two ninja joined hands and in front of the Fourth Hokage who was ready to start to seal the demon away and the Third Hokage who had just arrived from fighting the fox out of the village centre, they pointed their joined hands to the sky and shouted: **Lightning Style: Human Conductor!** At that moment the loudest clap of thunder bellowed across the village and a huge bright bolt of lightning stuck the nine tails and the ninja both. With the nine tails now paralysed and growling in anger and pain the Fourth Hokage made the final hand sign and sealed the demon fox inside of the blonde baby, which he then called Naruto Uzumaki. Before collapsing to the ground the Fourth looked at the two baby boys who were both crying at the loud noises in fear. "Shhh be still you two, one day you will both be seen as the heroes you and your parents were. And I know you too will look out for each other." And with that the Fourth Hokage fell dead. The Third Hokage and some medical ninja rushed to him only to hear the cries of the two babies. "Check the fourth Hokages seal we can't let that demon out and someone check the headband by the red haired (ginger) child". A medical ninja checked the seal and claimed it to be safe and secure and a member of the Ambu Black Ops responded and checked the headband but didn't give an answer. "Well"? Asked the Third Hokage. "The headband Lord Third, it.. it's blank."

12 Years Later, Morning Time In The Hidden Leaf Village

"YOU TWO BRATS HAVE REALLY DONE IT THIS TIME!" screamed one of the two ninja sent to capture the two trouble makers "BOY WHEN WE GET OUR HANDS ON YOU TWO YOU'RE GONNA PAY!" Both of the ninjas threats did nothing but make the blonde boy laugh: "HAHAHAHA, give it up. You guys are just pissed cause you don't have the guts to do what we do, do ya losers, wannabes." "Is insulting them really the best way to get them off our case Naruto?" "Ha come on Brad we both know that you could run circles around those two AND STILL HAVE ENOUGH ENERGY TO KICK THEIR ASSES" Naruto intentionally shouted so that their chasers would hear, while Bradley just simply rolled his eyes with a grin knowing Naruto was right. "THEN HOW ABOUT WE JUST LOSE THESE IDIOTS" Bradley said while giving Naruto a nod which he immediately understood. At the same time at the Hokage mansion another ninja went to alert the Third Hokage Sarutobi of the situation. "Lord Hokage IT'AN EMERGENCY" The Third Hokage simply stared at the ninja and just said: "Don't tell me it's Naruto and Bradley again" "It..It is those two again, this time they put graffiti all over the great stone faces of the Hokages" Lord Third simply blew a large amount of smoke from his pipe before returning with: "It will be sorted by the end of the day."

Back with Naruto and Bradley they put their little plan into action, with Bradley's nod and after pulling his silver goggles over his eyes they threw the paint buckets they kept full for this purpose at the two ninja, then with the chasers covering their eyes to block the paint Bradley grabbed Narutos arm and ran out of there at top speed. " GAH!? YOU LITTLE... Eh? SHIT WHERE'D THEYGO!

With their chasers obviously gone Bradley stopped for a quick breather and Naruto jumped and chuckled with glee "Haha that was too easy, that plan never fails." "Then how about you drag me halfway across the village at high speed next time huh? Bradley responded with a slight laugh. "THERE ISN'T GOING TO BE A NEXT TIME FOR YOU TWO!" "BWAHHH!" The two boys screamed. "What are you two doing here you're both meant to be in class" "But Iruka-Sensei." pleaded Naruto but before Bradley could even get a word in they were both tied up and dragged back to their classroom by Iruka Umino.

"I don't get it you two are the only ones to not pass the final exam and you insist on not paying attention and goofing off." Naruto simply ignored Iruka-Sensei while Bradley sighed as he knew what was coming. "FINE BECAUSE OF YOU TWO EVERYONE IS TO PERFORM A TRANSFORMATION JUTSU" The whole class moaned as they each had to transform into Iruka perfectly. Of course there was the usual swooning of girls as Sasuke Uchiha got to the front. Bradley was really confused as to why all the girls loved him. "The guys an emotionless asshole what do girls see in him?" Bradley whispered to Naruto. "Beats me. Now time for you all to witness the best transformation EVER!" Bradley stuck his head out of the line and saw Hinata Hyuga watching Naruto with a loving smile as usual. "Wow am I seriously the only one who notices"Bradley thought to himself. " **TRANSFORM** " Naruto shouted and with a puff of smoke a beautiful, sexy blonde was standing in front of Iruka, Bradley couldn't help but let a snort of laughter out neither could anyone else. Iruka of course went nuts but Naruto just laughed it off. "Finally Bradley Furasshu" Bradley stepped forward and simply made a version of Iruka with a big long nose, a hunched back and long stringy arms. " HA thats what Iruka-Sensei looks like in the morning" Naruto teased and the class just laughed and Iruka got mad again.

After school Naruto and Bradley were forced to clean two of the four Hokage heads each. While Bradley whizzed through his work he helped Naruto whenever he could. Afterwards Iruka took them to Ichiraku Ramen where Naruto dug straight in and Bradley was close behind. Eating Ramen was one of the few things Naruto could do quicker than Bradley. "You two will really have to work hard in order to graduate tomorrow you know?" Both of the boys ignored him as they were in the middle of another ramen race. "I WIN AGAIN". "Dammit how do you get through a bowl of this so fast?" But Iruka interrupted: "HEY YOU TWO! Why did you even do what you did to the the Hokage, don't you you even know who they are?" "Of course, the Hokage are the best of the best ninja" replied Naruto. "Then there's the Fourth Hokage who defeated the Nine Tailed Fox single handedly" "I can't believe one guy was able to take down a beast like that all on his own" Bradley thought to himself. " Then why did you put graffiti all over them?" " Because we're going to be better than all Hokage before us" Naruto said proudly. Bradley smiled at the thought of himself and Naruto being the worlds strongest ninja, ever since Bradley knew Naruto he knew it was Narutos dream to become Hokage. Bradley thought that becoming Hokage was completely out of the question for him but Naruto always said they'd both achieve that dream. Naruto continued: "Then people will stop disrespecting us and be proud of us" Iruka looked at the two boys and how close they seemed to be and smiled to himself. "Then you guys better ace that test tomorrow, how can either of you become Hokage without even becoming Genin." With that the two boys finshed there last bowl each said goodnight and they went back to their appartments that were conveniently two buildings right next to each other. "You know what Brad?" "Whats up?" There was a pause then Naruto gave a huge thumbs up and said: "We're going to ace that exam and be on the first step to becoming Hokage" This was the first time Bradley saw Naruto take an exam somewhat seriously. Bradley paused then raised his fist for Naruto to bump. "Then let's make it happen, no holding back!" Bradley said with confidence in his voice. "Those headbands are as good as ours" Naruto said with a bit of cockiness, before running inside his apartment to get some sleep and Bradley did the same. "I hope you're right Naruto, I hope you,re right"

The Next Day, The Academy Exam Hall

"PLEASE IRUKA-SENSEI I KNOW I CAN DO IT!" Naruto cried. "I'm sorry Naruto but you failed again" Iruka said with disappointment in his voice. Bradley was able to see everything that happened by peeking through the doors small window, from Narutos failed shadow clone to the look on his face on hearing having to spend another year at the acadamy. "There's no way I'm letting Naruto go through that hellhole alone" Bradley thought to himself. When Naruto came out of the examination hall he put on a smile and wished his friend luck thinking he hadn't seen anything. Bradley just walked into the exam hall and before even being told started making the hand signs and said: **"SHADOW CLONE JUTSU"** and he created a clone that purposely looked bad and was passed out on the floor. Iruka looked into Bradleys eyes as if looking into his soul and then just said: "Failed" and with that Bradley walked out. Himself and Naruto then just went outside and sat in their usual spot watching all the graduates with their parents being congratulated. Sometimes they could hear some parents talking amongst themselves saying things like: "See those two they're the only ones who failed" "Well could you imagine letting kids like them be ninja" "Shhh, you know we can't talk about that" It was more so the mystery as to why the villagers could not talk about Himself and Naruto in public that bothered Bradley. Bradley had a feeling that he was hated because he wasn't born in the Hidden Leaf village but was granted full asylum there. But he could't think of what Naruto did to deserve the harshness of how he was treated when he didn't do anything. Unlike him Naruto wasn't an outsider and their pranks were relatively harmless he couldn't think of anything. "Brad... BRADLEY!" Bradley was shaken back to reality by Naruto and he then saw one of the teachers from the exam standing over them. "Brad we have another way of passing the exam" Naruto whispered excitedly, Naruto motioned to follow him as he jumped away from building to building as Bradley got up dusted himself clean and zoomed off following Naruto from the village streets.

Iruka was standing with the Third Hokage as he saw Bradley and Naruto leave. "Those two boys would know more about how you feel more than anyone else in the village" "Huh?" Iruka was confused by what Lord Third had said to him. "Like you those boys grew up without the love of a mother and father. But unlike you the entire village is against them, looking down on them. They may not show it, maybe not even to each other but it would take a heavy toll on anyone. And they have managed to endure it for all this time, but I fear that if nothing changes they will start to fall into despair"The Hokage then left. That night Iruka was going through everything that the Hokage told him about Naruto and Bradley. But his thoughts were soon interrupted by one of the Hokages guards who claimed that Iruka was needed. When they arrived there was a lot of mumbling and Iruka could hear Bradley and Narutos names repeated a lot. At that moment the Hokage came out and the situation was then explained. "Lord Hokage both Naruto Uzumaki and Bradley Furasshu have stolen the sacred scroll of sealing. If misused we could have a situation like that of 12 years ago" "Not only that but the scroll contains Leaf Village jutsu that would be devastating in the hands of an outsider" "Isn't it already?" somebody muttered but nobody paid attention except for Iruka but he didn't say anything. "Hmmm. Bring both Naruto and Bradley back her at once" The Third Hokage said and without hesitation everyone went looking for the two boys.

"C..Come on Brad if we can master at least one jutsu then we.. we can pass" Naruto stuttered as he was short on breath due to his intense training. "Naruto doesn't this seem at least a little strange, I mean why would there be another way to pass the exam that Iruka would never even mention?" "Because it's a secret way only high quality ninja can pass remember, thats what Mizuki-Sensei said." Naruto was determined to pass which Bradley was happy to see but he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. Himself and Naruto managed to get the scroll while no one was looking, Bradley even found a small scroll that had his family name embeded in it which from a quick look in its contents was a guide to all different types of Furasshu clan jutsu's. They were then training in a small forest that Mizuki-Sensei said he would meet them and help them practise but it had been a few hours and he still hadn't shown up. "I finally found you two" Naruto and Bradley looked up to see Iruka. Bradley looked confused but Naruto was happy. "Iruka-Sensei. So all Brad and I have to do is perform one jutsu from the scroll then we can graduate right?" Iruka now looked even more confused than Bradley "What are you talking about Naruto?" Bradley took a step back then said: "You know the second way to pass the academy final exam?" Now Iruka was totally lost. "What are you two talking about and how is Mizuki involved?" "I knew it!" Bradley thought but right at that moment a dozen kunai knives were thrown in Narutos direction but Iruka managed to push him out of the way, without enough time to move Naruto was flung right on top of Bradley. When the two boys looked up they saw Iruka had been hit by a number of knives and was stuck to a tree, both Naruto and Bradley then saw that it was Mizuki who threw the knives. Mizugi then shouted out to Naruto. "Give me the scroll Naruto" he barked. "Wait whats going on here" Naruto said. For a little bit all Bradley heard was Iruka and Mizuki trying to get Naruto to give the scroll to one of them until Mizuki talked about some decree. "Everyone has been lying to the both of you your whole lives ever since the decre" "Wh..What decree" Naruto asked. "SHUT UP MIZUKI!" Iruka shouted, Naruto looked almost scared which was something Bradley had never seen before, almost like he didn't want to know what Mizuki was talking about. But Bradley was looking for answers his whole life for both him and Naruto. "Out with it then what was the truth that Naruto and I were not allowed to know?

"Please Bradley, Naruto just get the scroll away from Mizuki" Iruka pleaded. "Oh how to begin, well I guess we will start with Naruto looks like he's dyeing to know. Well Naruto the decree forbids anyone from telling you that since that night 12 years ago the Nine Tailed Fox has taken over your body. YOU ARE THE NINE TAILS!" Naruto was in complete shock but Mizuki wasn't done. "Yes Naruto the demon that killed Irukas parents' and destroyed our village is inside of you. The same demon also responsible for the death of the parents of your one and only friend" Now Bradley started to tremble and Naruto fell to his knees. "Thats right Bradleys parents are also dead beacause of the Nine Tails inside you." Bradley didn't really know what to think; "It wasn't Narutos fault my parents are dead its because of the Fox which was now... inside... **him**." . "Hm, seems Naruto has had enough for now, your turn outsider. Its not only the fact that you are an outsider that makes everybodys skin crawl. Its pretty convenient isn't it, that the Nine Tails appears just when you and your family of wanderers came to the leaf." "No" Bradley already knew what Mizuki was about to say. "IT'S BECAUSE OF YOUR FAMILY THAT THE NINE TAILS CAME TO THE LEAF IN THE FIRST PLACE!" Now it was Narutos turn to question his one and only friend: "But Bradley was a baby he had no part to play, it was just... **his**... family" Both of the boys were now staring at each other this one inccident caused them both such tragedy. Suddenly both of them just started to repeat the word no over and over again, with chakra swirling around Naruto, and the sound of electricity could be heard coming from Bradley as he was crouched with his head in his hands and little sparks could be seen coming from all over his body. "NARUTO! BRADLEY!" Iruka cried as the two boys were in such an emotional wreck. "That's why neither of you will ever be accepted in this village. EVEN YOUR BELOVED SENSEI HATES YOUR GUTS!

Mizuki then pulled out a giant shuriken and began to spin it just as Bradley looked up. "I'll be doing the village a favor by killing you two, starting with you Naruto! DIE YOU DEMON!" "NARUTO!" Naruto had tried crawling away but he heard the shuriken sink into skin and looked up to see Bradley on top of him with they ninja star right in his back from protecting him. "W..Wh.. Why?" Naruto asked thinking this to be some trick. " Because you are my best friend and I hope you feel the same way, even though my family looks to be to blame for that demon being inside you. We're both in the same boat and we have to look out for each other" Bradley was almost crying as he was speaking. "I'm sorry about your parents being killed by this thing but we were not there we don't know what happened that day. And of course I feel the same way, we are best friends and nothing will ever change that." The two boys smilled at each other. Then a huge grin was visible on Bradleys face which made Naruto feel uneasy " Why are you smiling doesn't that hurt" Then Naruto noticed something. Even though Bradley was badly hit he wasn't bleeding then Naruto took a close look at Bradley and noticed he wasn't wearing his silver goggles, which he'd never be seen without and Bradley also seemed to almost be making a humming/vibrating sound and would go slightly blurry from time to time. Bradley then told Naruto to look up and to Narutos amazement Bradley was hiding up the tree above him. Bradley had made some kind of unique strong shadow clone. The Bradley in the tree then gave Naruto the nod to start their usual prank escape plan. "Fine then" said Mizuki " I'll kill you first OUTSIDER!" As soon as Mizuki threw his last giant shuriken the clone of Bradley started to turn completely blurry then disappeared dropping the shuriken in its back which Naruto grabbed and hit the incoming shuriken upwards to Bradley, then jumping out of the tree catching the shuriken in mid air. Mizuki was in shock. Now both of the boys stood side by side and flung both shuriken at Mizuki forcing him to jump out of the tree. "If you want the scroll come and get it" They both said as they ran deeper into the forest. "Big mistake" Mizuki chuckled.

After searching for a while Mizuki caught sight of the moons reflection in Bradleys goggles and could see tufts of Narutos blonde hair from inside a bush. "Gotcha you br.. UGH!" At that moment Naruto landed a direct punch on Mizukis left temple and before even being able counter attack Bradley came out of nowhere and kicked Mizuki upwards right in the ribs. "But how?" asked Mizuki "I saw your goggles in the bush unless" "I already used one clone whats stopping me from making more" Bradley replied feeling exhilarated from this fight. Bradley then grabbed Mizuki and threw him across the forest floor shouting " He's all yours Naruto!" Bradley then called off the clones from the bush and above and now it was Narutos turn. He ran at Mizuki making him believe he was going in head first so Mizuki dived at Naruto who then slid underneath and created three clones who went to attack behind him. However Mizuki threw kunai at the clones causing them to disappear in a puff of smoke that both Naruto and Bradley took full advantage of. Just before the smoke cleared the two boys simultaneously punched Mizuki in the mouth. Now his face was covered in blood but he staggered to his feet. " YOU THINK YOU TWO CAN BEAT ME!" Both Naruto and Bradley looked at each other, smiled, formed the hand signs and shouted at the top of their voice: **"MULTI SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"**. Mizuki looked all around him, there wasn't one spot not filled by either a Naruto clone or Bradley clone. "In answer to your question yes this is the first victory in long line of wins for us" Bradley declared which Naruto high fived in agreement. "ATTACK" Naruto cried and suddenly there was just a cloud of Narutos and Bradleys beating the shit out of Mizuki.

The boys returned to Iruka and helped him remove the knives. Then Iruka remembered "Where is Mizuki?" "Don't worry about him he isn't going anywhere he's laying on the ground unconscious" Naruto laughed. "Yeah we might have took it a bit far" Bradley said attempting to hold back a laugh. Iruka looked at the two boys who just stared at each other and started laughing. "These two are strong and the sky is the limit for them, I believe they could surpass the previous Hokage" Iruka thought to himself. "Hey you two I've got something I want to give you guys". Back at the Hokages mansion, Lord Third told the squads he sent that the situation was under control and that the Sacred Scroll and the boys would return soon.

"Before you guys open your eyes I want you to forget what Mizuki called you two. Naruto you are not a demon and Bradley you are not an outsider. Open your eyes." The two opened their eyes looking at Iruka seeing he didn't have his headband both of them immediately went to check their forehead but then noticed a headband wrapped around Narutos right wrist and Bradleys left. "You are both a million times stronger when you fight together, always look out for each other then you two will be unstoppable. I'm proud to say you are both graduates of the are now officially ninja of The Hidden Leaf Village. Congratulations". Before Iruka could protest the two boys hugged him thanking him both Naruto and Bradley nearly crying. They wiped their eyes and returned the scroll back to the Hokage but Bradley held onto his family scroll.

On the way back to their apartments Naruto said: " I have a question about that clone you used to protect me from Mizukis shuriken" " Go ahead" "How did your shadow clone stay together even though it got hit with a giant shuriken when mine disappeared because of a kunai knife?" Bradley then decided to tell Naruto about his family scroll. Inside one of the first jutsus was called the **SPEED CLONE JUTSU**. In order to work the user must achieve high speed within a small radius then releasing chakra allowed it too latch onto the chosen spot and create a clone which the user could command through hand signs. " These speed clones are a lot more durable than shadow clones but I wouldn't be able to make nearly as many speed clones as shadow clones." Naruto was amazed Bradley was able to pull off that jutsu only mere hours after discovering it even existed. "Well if there is one thing I'm certain of now Brad. That is that, that Furasshu clan of yours is tuff." " Hey did you not see how strong we were tonight, just you wait Naruto we will become Hokage in no time" the two of them looked at each other smiled and gave each other a high five before they parted ways and went to bed. As soon as Bradley fell on the bed he suddenly remebered something quite important about tomorrow. "Now" He thought just before falling asleep "Who is going to be joining me and Naruto when the teams are announced tomorrow"


	2. New Friend's or New Foe's

**Author's Notes: Well this is chapter two I tried to make it a bit longer. I hope those following the story enjoy this next chapter.**

 **I don't own Naruto all rights belong to Masashi Kishimoto**

 **The Lightning Flash of the Leaf**

 **Chapter 2: New Friends or New Foes?**

Bradley was forced awake due to the rising sun which was right in his eyes. "I should really move the bed from this spot" He thought to himself. After taking a quick shower he went to the mirror to get himself ready. Bradley was about the same height as Naruto if not a little taller. He had a head full of dark ginger hair with a fringe that would hang just above his (what he called) dark lightning blue eyes. He went to his wardrobe where there was one lone outfit hanging. Bradley always wore the one same outfit: a pair of black cargo trousers with lots of pockets both visible and invisible which he liked. "Finally going to have a use for these pockets with all the ninja tools I'm going to use" He thought to himself. Bradley also wore a dark grey tank top and over it and then a black jacket and dark blue sleeves, with a hood which he rarely wore. The jacket also seemed to have more pockets that were similar to the pockets seen on vests worn by chunin and jonin class ninja on the top corners of his chest, there were two more pockets on each shoulder, a holder for scrolls at the bottom back which he placed his family scroll in and then some type of compartment in the sleeves. Finally on the back there was a large blue lightning bolt, which Bradley tried to remove a lot when he was younger as he knew it was linked with his family. But Iruka gave him the red circled swirl seen on all leaf village ninja uniforms. So now it looked like the bolt was coursing through the red swirl which Bradley and Naruto thought looked cool but not many of the villagers thought so. Finally Bradley grabbed his silver framed blue lens goggles but remebered he was now a ninja and always had to wear his leaf village headband, so he put the goggles around his neck and tied his headband around his forehead finally keeping his fringe out of his eyes. Just before he went to the kitchen he looked at the table beside his bed and saw the blank headband and cloth mouth mask that were found with him when he was a baby. He tried getting answers about the headband but all is research would turn up empty and he never really wore the mask, the villagers already saw him as a criminal why give them more of a reason too. But today something was different he decided he was going to try something new. Bradley took the blank headband and tied it around his right thigh facing it forwards and he then pulled the mask all the way down and tucked it in under his neck and would use it for missions. "And to keep bugs out of my mouth when running" he thought to himself laughing. Bradley took one last look at himself in the mirror and although all he did was add two village bands and a mask that wasn't even visible he felt he looked different but then moved onwards to the kitchen. "I wonder if everyone else is so focused on getting ready?" He thought.

Just as Bradley entered the kitchen there was a knock at the door that went out to the balcony that only Naruto ever used. He went over unlocked the door and opened it to the sexy blonde that Naruto turned into when they were told to make a lookalike of Iruka. "Hi sweetie can I come in?" she said seductively. "Naruto I was there when you turned into her" Bradley said leaving the door open for the girl to enter as he turned to get some food; " So how did you think you were going to get me with that?" When Bradley turned around Naruto was back to normal giggling to himself and constantly checking his headband. "It isn't going to fall off" Bradley teased. "Hey I worked for this and now we can finally take on missions" Naruto said with delight "It will just be you and me stopping bad guys and kicking their butts." Bradley started thinking to himself "Does Naruto not realise that someone else will be put onto our team. sigh I guess I'll let Iruka brake it to him" "Come on Brad let's get to the academy then we can meet our new Sensei" "Ok then... RACE YOU" Before Naruto could even react Bradley had already made it out the front door. "I could cut him off if I take the rooftops" Naruto thought to himself. He then jumped from the balcony making his way to the academy.

"AWWW NO FAIR, you got a head start" Naruto whined. "Hey I got here 6 minutes and 37 seconds before you the head start played no part" Bradley defended. The two boys entered their usual classroom to see the usual scene: Shikamaru sleeping while Choji was eating, Ino and Sakura bitching at each other over Sasuke, Kiba and Akamaru making as much noise as possible and Sasuke just sitting in the corner with his hands joined with girls just staring at him like he was the only guy in the world and he looked completely unfazed . "Seriously, what does he have that girls want him so bad?" Bradley questioned. "I know! Every girl in class is in love with that guy" Naruto said with an angry tone. "Well not every girl" Bradley thought as he quickly turned to see Hinata staring at Naruto but quickly faced the floor when she knew Bradley saw her. "Her face is going bright red, and still nobody notices. What will it take?" After trying to think of an excuse as to why nobody noticed Hinata, he turned see that Naruto was now on top of Saukes desk starring him down. All the girls were telling Naruto to get lost but he wasn't moving, so Bradley made his way to two empty seats but then the room went completely quiet and Bradley turned around to see what had happened. He simply put his head in his hand when he saw what happened. A guy behind Naruto bumped him making him kiss Sasuke right on the lips. Bradley saw that all the girls were disgusted and before any of them got to Naruto, Bradley whizzed Naruto to the seat beside him and then Iruka finally arrived.

"Okay quiet down everyone, I'm going to just go straight to calling out the teams" This of course shocked Naruto as Bradley knew it would and Naruto protested like Bradley knew he would. "Come on Iruka-Sensei, you said it yourself Bradley and I are stronger when WE work together. We don't need anyone else!" But Iruka just got mad and told him that it was this way or no way, so Naruto sat down quietly. "Ok we'll start with team 10: Ino Yamanaka, Choji Akimichi and Shikamaru Nara and you're new sensei will be Sensei-Asuma." Bradley turned to see Ino annoyed that she wasn't with Sasuke, Shikamaru not even awake and Choji just smiled and continued eating. "Next Team 8: Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame and Hinata Hyuga and you're sensei will be Sensei-Kurenai" Kiba let out a howl and Akamaru wouldn't stop barking, Shino just nodded and said nothing else and Hinata gave a stuttered "y..yes sir" "I'll bet anything she's upset she's not with Naruto" Bradley thought to himself. "Now Team 7: Sakura Haruno" Bradley could see that Sakura had her fingers crossed obviously hoping for Sasuke. "Naruto Uzumaki" At that moment Naruto cheered as he had always had a soft spot for Sakura but Bradley knew Naruto wouldn't have liked to see Sakuras reaction. She hit her head against the desk saying "I'm doomed" "Ouch, harsh" Bradley said. "HEHEHE" Naruto chuckled "This is perfect not only will Bradley and I be together but now Sakura will be with us too, this is going to be great." Naruto thought as he gave Bradley a thumbs up. "Hm, I wouldn't have guessed Sakura but with her knowledge and both mine and Naruto's talents, we could be a pretty epic team" Bradley concluded. "And Sasuke Uchiha.." Iruka said interrupting Bradley's train of thought.

"WHAT!" Naruto shouted, now Bradley was concerned. Only last night did Iruka say that both him and Naruto made an epic team and now he was putting them on different teams. Both Naruto and Bradley looked at each other shocked and all they could hear was Sakura celebrating that she was with Sasuke. Iruka was about to continue but Naruto beat him to it. "THE HECK IRUKA-SENSEI? You can't expect me to work with Sasuke just swap him out with Bradley, our team would be much better off" "But Nar.." Then Sakura interrupted. "No sensei if you have to swap someone swap Naruto he'd just bring the team down" "Sakura if you'd let.." This time Bradley spoke up "I've made it here with Naruto and I plan to continue by his side so put me onto team 7 Iruka-sensei" "IF YOU WOULD ALL BE QUIET AND LET ME FINISH!" Iruka bellowed and everyone went quiet. Bradley turned to look at Sasuke who was in the same position as when himself and Naruto arrived. "That son of a bitch doesn't even care!" Bradley said to himself. Iruka then continued.

"The Third Hokage has wished to perform a kind of experiment. He wants to see how efficient a team of 4 ninja and a sensei are. And if you had let me finish I would've told you.." Bradley was now hopeful of where this was going. "that team 7's final member is Bradley Furasshu." Bradley let out a sigh of relief and Naruto fist bumped him. Bradley turned to face Sakura who just rolled her eyes and said "I guess we're stuck with the you too" "Thanks" Bradley said sarcastically putting out his hand for Sakura to shake and then he gave her a small electric shock which she wasn't happy with. "Looking forward to working with you" Bradley said just to see how angry she'd get but she just turned away. Bradley then made eye contact with Sasuke, they didn't speak but Sasuke eventually broke away. Iruka continued telling the class their teams until it was all over and the senseis came and collected their new students. At about lunch time all that was left was Team 7 but Iruka said their sensei would meet them after lunch as he was late and to try to get to know one another.

As soon as they left the classroom they separated except for Naruto and Bradley. They walked together for a bit and saw Sakura having lunch. Bradley managed to convince Naruto to try talking to her but that didn't go well with Sakura telling him to get lost. Then Sasuke walked by and Sakura asked him to eat with her but he just completely ignored her, Naruto chased after him leaving Bradley sitting on the bench opposite of Sakura. She of course ignored him but Bradley just had a sandwich and then took off his goggles from around his neck to clean them. While cleaning them he noticed something in the lens it was the sun reflecting off of something behind him in the trees. As a little test to push his luck Bradley first, put his goggles back on then untied the blank headband from around his thigh and pretended to clean it. As he was doing that Naruto had gone and attacked Sasuke, tied him up and used a transformation jutsu to turn into him and he pulled it off.

Before attempting his experiment Bradley noticed Sasuke come back and he started talking to Sakura to a point that it was flirtatious. "That guy has never once showed any emotion and now he's playing?" Bradley didn't get it until Sakura hugged Sasuke and he winked at Bradley and showed the multi shadow clone jutsu hand sign, which meant unless Sasuke had also stolen the sacred scroll of sealing that besides him the only other person Bradley knew to know that hand sign was; "Naruto?" The Sasuke in front of him nodded before clenching his stomach and running off. "Maybe the poor guy is nevous that he got to hug Sakura" Bradley thought to himself. He then went back to his plan, he used his sleeve to clean the headband then, as if inspecting it, lifted it up towards the sky and managed to catch the suns reflection on the band and aimed at where he heard the noise. Then there was rustle in the trees and with no wind at the moment that gave Bradley the answer he was looking for. "Hm, late? Bullshit!" Bradley thought to himself "Now what would he be spying on us for?"

At that moment two Sasukes came running towards himself and Sakura, one of the Sasukes kicked the other right in the nuts stunning him then round-house kicked him sending the Sasuke that Bradley was willing to bet was Naruto flying backwards. Bradley went over when the smoke from the transformation jutsu cleared to if Naruto was ok. "Naruto!?" Sakura screamed, Bradley then responded; " Yeah and FYI the Sasuke you had lunch with and hugged was Naruto" Sakura looked pissed but before she could do anything it looked like Naruto had used the shadow clone jutsu and sent five clones towards Sasuke. "You're mine now, this is for ignoring Sakura" Naruto shouted. Both Bradley and Sakura didn't do anything, but for different reasons. Sakura simply didn't know what to do, even though she wasn't exactly nice to Naruto he was fighting Sasuke for her. Bradley on the other hand had come up with a theory as to what their new sensei was doing spying on them. "Maybe he has some kind of test planned and he's watching us to see what we can do, so until we're out of here I should refrain from using my lightning speed and any speed clones" So all Sakura and Bradley could do was watch, as the clones got closer Sasuke then got into a stance and quickly made 5 hand signs and shouted: **"FIRE STYLE: FIRE BALL JUTSU"** With a puff of flames and smoke all the shadow clones disappeared in a fiery inferno. Naruto just got angrier and Sasuke started coming towards him ready to strike.

But before either one could land a hit Bradley managed to get between them without going to fast to be considered abnormal. Neither Naruto or Sasuke saw it coming. "Ok the two of you are strong" Bradley turned to Naruto; "Just let him go this time and after we meet our sensei you can chase Sasuke to your hearts content, deal?" Naruto thought about it but trusted his friend was doing this for a reason. "Deal!" Naruto said and he backed off . "Tch! Loser" Bradley managed to hear Sasukes pathetic insult but chose to ignore him. The Academy bell rang letting the team know that their sensei should be at the classroom by now. "We should all head back" Sakura said leading the pack with Naruto close behind, before Sasuke was out of reach Bradley grabbed his shoulder and whispered to him; "I may be a loser to you but at least I didn't show off my jutsu to prying eyes" with that Bradley followed Sakura and Naruto leaving Sasuke confused. "Hmph. What was that loser talking about?" then Sasuke was last to follow. "Well this seems like an interesting group, I hope they can get over their bickering though then they could be a powerful squad" Thought the person who now walked out of the trees and started to make his way to the classroom to meet his team.

Back Inside The Academy Classroom

All of team seven were waiting in the classroom like Iruka said but there was still no sign of their sensei. Everyone was sitting in different ends of the classroom, Sasuke was in his usual corner at the back, Sakura was admiring him for doing nothing, again. Bradley was at the front watching Naruto try to come up with ways to pass the time. "UGHHHH!" Naruto moaned "Where the heck is this guy, some sensei he turned out to be. At this rate everybody else will be Jonin while we're still waiting to even meet our sensei." Bradley just smiled at Narto's complaints, but he was wondering what their sensei was doing. "Maybe after studying us he's trying to come up with a strategy, but would it take this long. Or maybe I was all wrong and that person in the trees wasn't our new sensei and he just has no sense of time" Bradley kept thinking of reasons as to why he'd be late but was interrupted by Sakura yelling at Naruto again and started complaining to Bradley about it.

"What is it now Sakura?" Bradley said as Sakura was always whining to him about Naruto. "Will you please tell Naruto to quit messing around, he only seems to listen to you" Bradley looked in Naruto's direction and saw him carefully arranging the chalk board duster in between the classrooms door. "You know he would probably listen to you Sakura if you asked him nicely" He said while giving her a look that seemed to make her uncomfortable. "and heck from how late this guy is maybe he could use some motivation to not be so late next time" Sakura didn't even bother arguing with him anymore and Naruto chuckled as he declared his trap set. Bradley turned around to talk to Sasuke. "So what's your opinion Uchiha?" But as Bradley expected Sasuke completely ignored him but then he noticed Sasuke pay attention and Bradley could hear foot steps now to. "Finally!" He thought. Everyone kept quiet to see what the guy would do, and as if nothing was wrong a tall silver grey haired man opened the door and everyone could hear the duster hit his head then the ground with a thump. Naruto immediately burst out laughing and Bradley, even Sakura braced for the usual yelling that would follow but it never came. The man just dusted off his hair and told Naruto to sit down.

"Sorry I'm a little late" he said in a kind of deadpan tone. "Well I'm your new sensei Kakashi Hatake." The 4 kids looked at the man not really sure what to make of him, since he covered his left eye with his village headband and a cloth mask identical to Bradley's which covered prctically the rest of his face. "Today I just want to learn about you guys, so tell me your names and a bit about yourselves" "Like what?" Questioned Naruto "Well what are you likes and dislikes, whats your dreams that sort of thing" "Alright then I'll start" Naruto said waiting to get started. "Haven't you heard of ladies first?" Kakashi said just before Naruto could talk. "Well guess that means you first Uchiha" Bradley teased making Naruto chuckle and as usual Sasuke paid no notice. Then Kakashi motioned for Sakura to begin.

Well my name is Sakura Haruno, the only thing I really hate are those knucleheads" She said pointing at Naruto and Bradley. " and well I guess theres one thing I really like.. or someone I mean and he's just so... ohhh you know" Bradley suddenly turned around and just blatently asked; " Ok Sakura as you appear to be a girl maybe you can answer me the question of why every girl is in love with Mr. Brooding over there" as he waved his hand towards Sasuke. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN APPEAR TO BE A GIRL!" Sakura screamed but Kakashi calmed her down and then allowed Naruto to talk. "Haha, my name is Naruto Uzumaki, I love ramen especially with fishcake and pork and I hate menma it tastes gross" Bradley smiled at the memory of Naruto first trying menma then Naruto continued on "and my dream is for me and my best friend here...TO BECOME HOKAGE!" "Hmm, an admirable goal" Kakashi said which made Naruto smile. "And what about your friend" Naruto looked at Bradley giving him a nod and Bradley spoke.

"My name is Bradley but you can call me Brad if you want like Naruto does. I like spending time with my friend and sometimes going for a run around the village in the evenings. I hate not being able to solve a situation or disappointing my friend. And while we share a common dream, I have a personal goal to get answers to questions I have discovered and found." "Like what?" Kakashi inquired " Like, why were you spying on us during lunch and what was the purpose of it?" Bradley declared confidently, this grabbed everyones attention even Sasuke's. Bradley also noticed Kakashi's one visible eye was now a lot wider. "Wait you were spying on us?" Naruto asked. "Wh.. how I didn't even notice anything" Sakura questioned. "So sensei will I get an answer to that question?" Bradley asked while grinning. Kakashi remained quite but then spoke up. "I believe that if you were able to find that question then I think you already have an answer, go with your instinct" Kakashi then dropped the subject and lastly moved onto Sasuke. "My name is Sasuke Uchiha, I hate a lot of things and I don't particularly like anything" Bradley saw Sakura a little hurt by that statement when she practically stated she loved Sasuke right in front of him. "And what I want isn't a dream because I'll make it a reality. I want to find a certain someone and kill him, then I'll restore my clan to it's former glory"

"Wow I'm sure the guys shaking in his sandals Uchiha" Bradley mocked but was then scolded at by Kakashi, at least he thought that was what he was doing under his mask. "Ok. I want you four to meet me at the training field tomorrow morning bright and early and to skip breakfast, there won't be enough time." "So what exactly are we doing Kakashi-Sensei?" Sakura asked. "You can call it a field test for now. Since now I know about you guys I want to see how you handle yourselves. But with four of you it shouldn't be much of a problem" Kakashi smiled from what the kids could tell, and before they could ask any questions he disappeared in a puff of smoke. With that the kids finally left the academy and made their separate ways home. "Naruto I'll meet you at Ichiraku tonight there's some stuff I want to do" "Sure see you later." Just before Bradley zoomed off Naruto asked him. "Why didn't you tell Kakashi-Sensei your last name?" Bradley began pulling his goggles over his eyes and had his hand on his mask and then answered: "It was just a safety precaution" and then whoosh Bradley was gone.

The Next Morning At The Training Field

Even though they were told by Kakashi to skip breakfast that morning Bradley was munching on an apple as he was waiting for everyone at the training field, trying to understand the situation. After he left Naruto yesterday Bradley went for a run around the village as he would sometimes do. Using it as training, to have to maneuver in and out of the people avoiding anything that came in his path. Bradley then arrived at the training field and did not stop running until making sure to the best of his knowledge that Kakashi wasn't there and started to have a look around to see what type of battle ground he was dealing with. At this point Bradley had come to two ideas as to what this field test was going to be. "Well considering Kakashi-sensei asked us to come to this extreamly open area I'm going to have to say that I'm certain one way or another we'll have to fight him. But one on one or four on one?" Even though Bradley kept trying to think of something there wasn't much left he could think of. So he returned to Naruto for ramen as he said he would and told Naruto what he thought. Naruto simply finished his last bowl and thanked Bradley for the tips and headed home for bed for their early morning assignment.

Bradley was just throwing away his apple as Sakura showed up and actually to Bradleys surprise actually started talking to him. "Good morning, Bradley" She didn't put much emotion in as she seemed to be still tired. "I see that you are definitely a morning girl Sakura" Bradley teased but she was to tired to retort. But that quickly changed when Sasuke made his way towards them. "Where is that loser friend of yours Bradley?" Sasuke asked. "Wouldn't you like to know" Bradley came back. "and wouldn't I" he said to himself nervously. "You all better keep out of my way, you'll all just slow me down" Bradley couldn't help but snort at Sasukes poor choice of words. "Trust me Uchiha if you were to fail it certainly wouldn't be any of our faults" Sasuke simply glared at Bradley who was casually smiling back at it him. "Anyway here comes Naruto now" They could all see the blonde hair a mile away. When he finally reached the group he was out of breath and panting. "I'm.. not late.. am I?" Before any of his teammates could answer, Kakashi appeared on top of some statue that they were standing near. "No worries Naruto, you're just in time"

"Good to see you're all here now I'll explain what you're going to be doing today." All of the team looked serious as they paid close attention to Kakashi's words. Before he spoke Kakashi raised his hand to show three bells swinging freely from his fingertips. "Your target today is.. me." "Called it" Bradley thought to himself. " and your mission is to get these bells, simple. You can use any means necessary but if you don't get a bell within the three hour time limit you will fail" Now this caught Bradley off guard until he remembered that a sensei can say if there new squad hasn't got what it takes they can fail them and send them back to the academy. "So **this** is our final test to become Genin, right?" Bradley asked. "Correct" "But sensei there is only three bells and there's four of us" stated Sakura and Kakashi continued. "Yes only three of you will pass which actually would balance things out" Bradley took that as some kind of taunt but he restrained himself. "One of you will not pass and be sent back to the academy. And the test starts... NOW!"

At that moment everyone scattered, Sasuke hid in a low bush where he could see the front of Kakashi, Sakura was in another bush to Kakashi's but was more focused on finding Sasuke and Bradley hid in a high tree a number of meters away facing Kakshi's back. But Naruto stayed exactly where he was and created seven shadow clones and went for a head on attack. "Naruto what are you thinking" Bradley said to himself as he knew Kakashi would be able tell Naruto would use shadow clones from watching them all yesterday. "That bell is mine!" Naruto shouted as he and his clones jumped Kakashi at the same time but none of them could feel Kakashi. "Huh? Where did he go?" they all wondered but Kakashi had used a substitution jutsu and then destroyed all of the shadow clones and he then got behind Naruto and used some jutsu that Bradley heard him say: **"A THOUSAND YEARS OF DEATH"** Which sent Naruto flying through the air and howling with pain. " The fuck was that?" Bradley thought.

About an hour and a half had passed and since Naruto got launched by Kakashi nobody had moved or tried anything. But then Bradley caught sight of Naruto going for a bell that Bradley saw Kakashi place there as bait. "Please Naruto don't fall for it" Bradley wished but sadly he saw Naruto hanging upside down from a tree and Kakashi was now lecturing him. "Ok, my turn Kakashi" Bradley said as he readied himself for his plan. While prepping himself he heard Sakura screaming but then go quiet. "Guess Kakashi got to her. I wonder what Uchiha is up to?" Bradley pondered but now he was ready. Bradley started running slowly, Bradley's standard of slow being a normal persons sprint, and tried reaching out to for the bells coming from Kakashi's right. But Kakashi simply grabbed his arm and threw him over his head. "Do all of you just go into a fight head first?" Kakashi asked. Bradley got up and dusted himself off and raised his fists ready to fight. "Only the ones who are smart enough" he said with a grin. "I have to give you credit Bradley, I was surprised you were able to catch me yesterday, you seem to have a talent at finding things that are hard for others to find." He said complimenting Bradley. "But you need to get better at forming strategy's"

At that moment Kakashi reached behind him grabbed two arms and had put his leg on another Bradley's back. "How did you know? My speed clones are closer to the real thing than shadow clones how could you know it wasn't really me?" Bradley shouted as he was angry that he got caught and was now Kakashi's hostage. "You're right your speed clones are amazing and your natural speed is phenomenal, but unlike shadow clones on closer inspection your speed clone seems to become distort every few seconds, not noticeable to most but noticeable to me. Also I saw this kind of trick from you coming." "HOW!? I didn't show off my speed or my jutsu when you were watching us and I didn't give you my second name as backup so you wouldn't have seen it coming!" "Yes, but your first name is not common in this village, or any village but it has been common in the Furasshu clan history" Hearing something about his clans history made Bradley stop and think "and plus there isn't anyone in this village who doesn't know you or Naruto's name. So that Brad Furasshu is how I played against you"

"Well I'm not done yet" Bradley then signalled the speed clone to attack Kakashi who was aiming to kick him in the face, so Kakashi raised one hand to block the clones foot and the real Bradley spun and sweeped his leg under Kakashi's making him fall and Bradley then darted for the bells. But Kakashi substituted again a few meters behind him, Bradley ran at him avoiding several incoming shuriken that all hit the speed clone in the throat causing it to collapse and disappear. Bradley and Kakashi repeated the form of substituting, running and punching for nearly an hour, until Bradley realised he wasn't going to get a bell this way and after checking that Naruto had escaped the trap in the tree he ran off at top speed while Kakashi had disappeared with substitution.

While Bradley was getting some energy back and trying to think of a new plan he could hear Sasuke's attempt at grabbing a bell. There was a lot more jutsu's being called out but Kakashi was ready after seeing Sasuke's strongest Jutsu from yesterday, that being the fireball jutsu. Their fight seemed to last quite a while and Bradley couldn't think straight. Kakashi was also simultaneously dealing with Sakura by trapping her in a genjutsu. Then Naruto was fed up and decided he was at least going to get a bite to eat. Just as he was about to tuck in Kakashi found him and tied him up to a wooden pole. Bradley then heard Sasuke and Kakashi's fight go quiet and he had heard nothing from Sakura in ages. "What the hell happened?" Bradley wondered but was suddenly pulled down from the tree by Kakashi. As Bradley was about to try again Kakashi raised his hand and said: "Don't waste your energy the test is over" with that Bradley had to follow Kakashi back to where they started to see four wooden poles and Naruto tied to one of them, as Sasuke looked pissed and Sakura looked dissapointed. Bradley sat down by the pole next to Naruto angry at himself. Kakashi just stared at them before just saying in a somewhat annoyed tone. " Just give it up, not one of the four of you... WILL EVER BE A NINJA!"

All of team 7 looked at Kakashi shocked then Naruto just lost it. "What do you mean GIVE UP! Ok so none of us got your stupid bells but why should we quit because of that!" "Because not one of you have what it takes" Kakashi replied. Upon hearing this Sasuke charged at Kakashi trying to attack him but Kakashi grabbed his arm threw him to the ground and put it behind his back and had his foot on Sasuke's head. "GET OFF OF HIM" Sakura cried. But Kakashi simply sighed. "Even now not one of you have figured out the point of this exercise. Naruto and Sakura were confused thinking that "this exercise had a point?" "Wait I was under the impression that the point of this exercise was for you to measure our individual strengths" Bradley protested. "No" Kakashi answered. "Then TELL US" Naruto yelled. "... It's teamwork!" At that point Naruto, Bradley, Sakura and Sasuke all had a look of realisation on their face. "If all four of you had come at me together you might have been able to take the bells." "But there is only three bells, so even if we worked together one of us would have still failed." Sakura announced. "Of course, this task was designed to see if any of you were capable of giving up something for the sake of your team. But instead... Sakura"

Kakashi now starring at Sakura. "You ignored Naruto who was right in front of you and instead focused on Sasuke without fully knowing where he was." Now turning to Naruto " Naruto, you tried to do the work of all four single-handed" Then facing Bradley "Bradley, you hung back with a strategy that if you had used your speed to relay it to Sasuke and Sakura you could have all jumped me, simultaneously saving Naruto from my trap and getting the bells." finally lookind down at Sasuke. "And you Sasuke already decided that the other three were just in your way and thought you'd do better on your own. You are all a team learn to act like one, while it's important to have individual skills, teamwork is crucial. Exposing one member can place your whole team in danger, for example" Kakashi then pulled Sasuke's arm further back causing him to growl in pain and anger. "Bradley, Sakura kill Naruto or Sasuke dies" "WHAT!" They all shouted. But Kakashi then got off of Sasuke. "Remember on a mission your lives are always on the line and a day could come where one of you has to make a similar decision in a similar circumstance". Kakashi turned his back to the four kids then tossed a bento box in front of them.

"Listen up I'm giving you one last chance but, it will be a lot tougher than our game with the bells. Sasuke, Sakura and Bradley, you three may share the food in the bento box but no sharing any of what's in their, with Naruto as that will be his punishment for trying to sneak a bite to eat. If any of you try to feed him your food then you all fail the test right there. My word is law do you understand?" Before they could respond Kakashi vanished. As Sakura handed the food to Bradley and Sasuke, Naruto said that he'd be fine but Bradley knew otherwise. Within seconds Naruto's stomach rumbled but Sasuke and Sakura had to ignore him but Bradley couldn't stand to see his best friend like that. Bradley then looked at the bento box and recalled Kakashi's words "No sharing any of what's in here? What if it was from somewhere else?" With that Bradley put his food down, stood up and zoomed off making a gust of wind that created a small dust cloud and blew Sakura's long pink hair. "What does he think he's doing?" Sakura asked but Bradley came back in less that 10 seconds.

"Where did you go?" She demanded. Bradley grinned and took out his own bento box from home from his pocket and Sakura gasped "But you heard what Kakashi-sensei said Naruto has to go without food" But Bradley spoke back "Kakashi's exact words were that Naruto wasn't allowed anything from the bento box **he** gave us so I ran home and got my one." Naruto looked at his friend and smiled while Sakura and Sasuke didn't know what to make of his plan but Sasuke then spoke up; "I don't like saying it but Bradley's right we technically won't have disobeyed Kakshi's orders and if we plan on beating him, we'll all have to be at 100%" Bradley was shocked that Sasuke managed to agree with him now he had to convince Sakura. "Come on Sakura even Uchiha agrees with me, that's got to mean something" Sakura then took the bento box out of Bradley's hands and offered to feed Naruto so Bradley could finish his food. "Gee, thanks you guys" Naruto chuckled but Sakura wasn't exactly happy that she had to feed Naruto. But from a tree not too far from them Kakashi saw everything.

In a giant puff of smoke Kakashi suddenly appeared. "YOU...!" He yelled with a terrifying voice and an sinister look in his only visible eye. All the the team screamed but Bradley got up and confidently stated: "If you let me explain Sensei none of us directly disobeyed you, you see..." "Pass!"... wink There was a moment of silence as no one was fully sure what Kakashi just said but he appeared to be smiling, Sakura managed to let a tiny terrified "what?" and Kakashi repeated himself in much happier tone "You all pass" Bradley and Naruto stared at each other confused Sakura seemed to be just starring into space and Sasuke was thinking to himself.

"But... how exactly?" Bradley asked cautiously "You have all taken a huge step forward" Kakashi said delightedly "Yeah but how?" Bradley asked again this time hoping for an answer. "Up until now you four have blindly done everything I told you to do, a true shinobi looks for hidden meanings within hidden meanings. I will admit though Bradley I wasn't expecting anyone to run to their home make a lunch for Naruto then run back, you would have still passed if you all just shared your own food." "But then we would have broken the rules, Bradley's way was a way around the rules" Sakura defended. "First Sasuke agrees to a plan I came up with now Sakura is justifying what I did, what the hell is next?" Bradley thought to himself. "It is true that in this shinobi world those who break the rules are scum but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum." All of the kids seemed to think about Kakashi's statement and take it heart. "I'm happy to announce you are the first team to pass my test, you are all now officially Genin class ninja of the Hidden Leaf Village. Tomorrow Team 7's duties will officially begin.

Bradley finally untied Naruto as they high fived, fist bumped and cheered: "WE'RE FINALLY NINJA!" They repeated over and over again. While Sakura was giggling to her hearts content and Sasuke even managed to crack a small smile. Just as everyone was heading home Kakashi called Bradley over. "Bradley, those speed clones of yours are good but it would be a good idea for you to add more jutsu to your arsenal. Maybe take another look at that scroll of yours see what peaks your interest." With that Kakashi continued on with his new students, as Bradley took the scroll from his holder and looked at it before catching up with his team.

That night while Bradley was laying in bed starring at his leaf headband he began to think about his team-mates. His sensei Kakashi at first seemed to be a laid back guy who turned out to be pretty powerful and strict, but in the end he seemed like someone Bradley felt he could depend on. Sakura was of course easy on the eyes and didn't seem like she could do much, but Bradley thought that there was going to be more to her and felt he could trust her to do her best. Sasuke on the other hand Bradley never liked and still that hadn't really changed, Bradley admitted that yes he was powerful but didn't think he'd be able to fully trust Sasuke. And finally Bradley's best friend while yes Naruto could be reckless and maybe not all that smart but Bradley knew he could depend on Naruto when it counted. Bradley even felt he could place his life in Naruto's hands and feel safe. And Bradley hoped Naruto felt the same way.

Naruto at the same time was looking at a picture of him and Bradley with Iruka at the academy and without giving it a second thought Naruto said. "I know I could trust Bradley with anything even my own life and I would do the exact same for him in a heartbeat."

Then just before Bradley went to sleep he took out his family scroll and tried looking for a new jutsu to master. " I think it's about time I learn some Lightning Style Jutsu."


	3. Team 7's Battles Begin Now

**Author's Notes: I had a little bit of trouble writing this chapter but I was finally able to get an ending I was happy with and I hope you continue to enjoy the story. I plan on this ark being about two or three chapters long including this one. Let the action begin!**

 **I don't own Naruto all rights belong to Masashi Kishimoto**

 **The Lightning Flash of the Leaf**

 **Chapter 3: Team 7's Battles Begin Now**

"How far away is the target?" Kakashi asked his students over the radio. "About 5 meters and we're closing in." "Good. Bradley anything final to report." For this mission Bradley was given the task of reconnaissance which fit him perfectly; "Getting in and out of somewhere fast and getting information without being seen is something I should always do, I'm a natural." Bradley said with cockiness in his voice. "Quit messing around Bradley, the target will hear you!" Sakura growled quietly. "Hehe, the target hasn't moved in nearly two minuets, I've surveyed the area from numerous angles without detection. Now would be a good time to make the final move." "Ok then... GO!" And with that all of team 7 jumped the target. "GOTCHA!" Naruto cried as he grabbed the cat.

"Remember our target should have a ribbon tied to it's left ear, does it have it?" Sasuke replied: "Target confirmed" "Gee, I was chasing the damn thing for ages of course it was going to be the right one, I'm insulted sensei." Bradley moaned sarcastically as he tried to get the cat away from Naruto as it was scratching his face. "Good then mission: Find the Lost Pet, is accomplished.

Back at the Hokage mansion team 7 returned the cat to it's owner who seemed to be nearly crushing the cat hugging it. "With the way she acts can you blame it running away?" Sakura whispered to Bradley who just laughed to himself. The Third Hokage and Iruka were searching through papers looking for another assignment for Kakashi's team. "Now team 7's next task will be... hmm? Babysitting the village elders, running errands for a neighbouring village or.." But Naruto interrupted Lord Third before he could finish. " NO WAY, NO THANK YOU, BOOOORING! Give us something important already we can handle it." The whole team sighed as they had been through this routine since day one. "Don't be stupid Naruto, everyone starts out with the small jobs as experience for the bigger things. You guys are the lowest rank Genin class ninja, when you reach the higher ranks of Chunin then Jonin then you can start accepting higher class missions of C, B, A and so fourth." But Naruto wasn't having any of it. "COME OOOON, we've done tons of small jobs, can't we get some action? We are all skilled enough!" Naruto begged and Kakashi knocked him on the head telling him to be thankful for what he got. Bradley at this point was like Naruto, he was tired of these grunt jobs as he found them way too easy and he really wanted a challenge, but he was just better at containing his feelings of such matters.

Iruka was about to start yelling again but the Hokage raised a hand to stop him. Lord Third stared at each member of the team before pulling at his hat. "Fine" He said as the team even Kakashi and Iruka were surprised to hear him say. " I will permit you all to attempt a C class mission usually reserved for a Chunin rank ninja. Your mission will be to escort and protect a certain individual. I will summon the one you are assigned to protect immeadietly." With that the Hokage left them.

"WOW, I wonder who we're protecting, maybe it's a great lord or the Daimyo oh oh or maybe a princess." Naruto kept fantasising as Bradley looked at it from a realistic view and asked Kakashi what he thought of his theory. "So they're giving our team, a team of 4 Genin and 1 Jonin a mission that would usually be saved for a team of Chunin class ninja. So in order to keep things realistic the Hokage must not be asking us of the lowest rank to protect somebody that important. Wouldn't you think so Kakashi-Sensei?" "I'd say you're right on the money Brad." Kakashi said as he pointed towards the door. Bradley turned to see the Hokage and another old man in quite ragged clothes standing next to him. "You are joking right? These kids are my escorts, they look like a bunch of brats." Upon hearing this Naruto nearly jumped the old man but Kakashi grabbed him by the collar before he could do anything. "I'm Tazuna an ultimately renowned bridge builder, until I'm home safe you lot are to protect me even if it costs you your lives." Bradley then took a step forward grabbing Tazuna's attention. "Is insulting the group of people you asked to protect you really a wise idea?" Bradley asked trying to act a bit intimidating. "I didn't ask for your protection, I'm paying for it!" The old man declared, while Bradley didn't move on the inside he thought: "Touche." "You have one hour to prepare yourselves then meet Mr. Tazuna at the village gates." The Hokage commanded. "Wait we're leaving today?" Sakura asked. "Of course, now go get ready!" Tazuna bellowed.

At Bradley's house he started packing a bag with food and spare ninja tools, like kunai knives and shuriken and other supplies. He then placed a number of kunai and shuriken in his various trousers and jacket pockets. Finally before leaving he took his scroll from his desk that also had a new picture of his team and himself. Sasuke and Sakura were on the far left while Naruto and himself were on the far right and Kakashi was in the middle with his hands on Naruto and Sasuke's heads. Bradley laughed as in the picture Naruto and Sasuke were looking at each other both looking annoyed. Bradley then looked down at his scroll as he thought about the jutsu's he was attempting to learn. Bradley would usually train on his own by a river close to the training field where Kakashi's test took place. Sometimes Naruto would join him and even tried jutsu from the scroll but with no success. Bradley took his training seriously and would practise every day in between missions. He then placed the scroll in his holder, walked out of his home, locked the door and ran towards the village gate. Going through back alleys and packed streets, jumping, ducking, sliding, skidding and avoided all obstacles and made it to the village gate first in just about a minute.

After waiting for a while, Tazuna arrived with Kakashi then followed by Sasuke and Sakura then lastly Naruto who had a huge look of excitement on his face. "ALL RIGHT ROAD TRIP!" Naruto cried. "What are you babbling about?" Tazuna asked and Bradley stepped in to answer. "Well none of us have ever travelled beyond the village before so can you blame him for being excited?"... "I'm really meant to trust these kids with my life?" Tazuna asked Kakashi who assured him that he was an elite Jonin ninja so not to worry, while Bradley had to hold Naruto back from attacking Tazuna, again. Then Naruto got out of Bradley's grasp and pointed his finger at Tazuna and declared: "You just wait one day I'm going to be Hokage, the most powerful ever, so remember my name... IT'S NARUTO UZUMAKI, REMEMBER IT!" Bradley then smiled as Naruto still as always stood up for himself and his dream but Tazuna just turned his back on him which made Naruto lose his temper again making Bradley have to hold onto him again. Kakashi then motioned for everyone to start their journey for the Land of Waves.

They had been walking for a little over an hour and no-one had said a word until Sakura wanted to ask Kakashi a question. "Umm.. Kakashi-Sensei are there ninja in the Land of Waves?" Kakashi assured Sakura that there were no ninja that operate from the Land of Waves as he could tell she was a little on edge about possibly getting in a fight with foreign ninja calming her down. Bradley at this point was starting to become a little restless at how slow they all seemed to be going which Kakashi must have caught on to. "Bradley!" "Yes Kakashi-Sensei?" Bradley said relieved to at least be talking. "I want you to run on ahead up to a signpost for the Land of Waves just a few minutes away and report back if you notice anything unusual, understand?" Tazuna looked confused as he thought that the sign was another few miles off but then he realised why Kakashi asked Bradley because as soon as Bradley replied yes he was gone and Tazuna's mouth hung open. "That kid's fast." He said and turned around to see Naruto on his knees looking at the ground, but before he could yell at him Kakashi went over and got down on his knees to. "Woah!" Naruto exclaimed. "What is it Kakashi-Sensei?" Sakura asked curiously but then she saw what they were looking at. From where Bradley had took off there was his footprint and inside it they could hear and see sparks of electricity and even what looked like fire but it disappeared before they could examine it. "Interesting." Kakashi thought to himself as he motioned for the team to continue.

After a few minutes, suddenly from the distance the team heard a loud **BOOM** which made Sakura jump. "What was that?" she said reaching for a kunai but calmed down when no-one else did. "Well it seems Bradley has broken the sound barrier." Kakashi declared which caught Sasuke, Sakura and Tazuna's attention but made Naruto confused. "Umm.. what are you talking about sensei?" Naruto asked but instead Sasuke explained. "Listen loser, that loud boom we heard was your friend running so fast that he created a sonic boom meaning that he had reached super sonic speed that is as fast as the speed of sound, that's why everyone is for some reason impressed." "Sooo he went really fast?" Sasuke just kept walking leaveing Kakashi to tell Naruto. "Yes Bradley has reached an incredible speed especially for his age." "What do you mean for his age?" Sakura asked. "Well in Bradley's clan, the Furasshu, some of their members have reached mach level speeds, even light-speed edging on instantaneous transport." Sakura was shocked even Sasuke looked up in attention but Naruto just gave up and just nodded pretending to understand while trying to remember stuff so he could tell Bradley later. "The members of the clan that reached those speeds often started at a young age and reaching Super Sonic speeds was the first hurdle." "So are you saying Bradley could reach light-speed soon?" Sakura asked. "Well not soon but yes someday it looks possible." Just before Sakura could ask another question a large gust of wind came out of nowhere and everyone turned to see Bradley planted face first into a tree. Sakura then looked at Kakashi; "I said he was now able to reach super sonic speeds I never said he could control it." Naruto was pulling Bradley from the tree but jumped back as he got a shock and he could see little sparks all over his friends body. Bradley then managed to pull himself up and said. "Nothing... unusual... to report." since he felt physically exhausted. Sasuke then looked at Tazuna feeling that something was up.

After Bradley got his energy back they continued for another while as Naruto was asking Bradley questions about what happened and Bradley kept saying that when he reached the sign he made his way back pushing himself to go faster, until a loud boom shook him off balance and the next thing he knew he was in a tree. "You'll have to add controlled running to your daily training." Kakashi advised. "Yes sir." Bradley answered. Kakashi seemed to then slow down quite suddenly but no-one said anything and just slowed down themselves. Suddenly two men wearing some kind of breathing masks were on either side of Kakashi and had chains wrapped around him. Everyone turned around shocked. "One little piggy" One of the two ninja said and with that they pulled on the chains so hard that that Kakashi was squeezed to death and was shreded into pieces. No-one moved Sakura and Naruto looked both confused and terrified, Bradley was panicking but didn't show it and Sasuke's face was completely blank. The two ninja then went behind Naruto who didn't seem to move. "Two little piggies!"

Their chains rattled as they were about to destroy Naruto the way they did Kakashi. But Bradley wasn't going to let anyone harm his friend so without thinking he charged at the two ninja fists out and just before punching their faces a sudden surge of energy entered his body and he jolted forward. **BOOM!** And he created another sonic boom launching him into the two ninja and Sasuke then entered the battle. As the two ninja were connected by their chain as they were sent back from Bradley's blast Sasuke threw a shuriken and kunai catching the chain and sticking it to a tree pulling them straight back, for Sasuke to land on their heads. With the two ninja now stuck Bradley saw this as an opportunity to hit them with his new jutsu, he started making the hand signs... but the two ninja disconnected the chain holding them and one went for Naruto while the other went for Sakura who was standing guard in front of Tazuna. Bradley and Sasuke looked at each, nodded and each made their way towards one of the two attackers. Sasuke stood in front Sakura and Bradley defended Naruto but the two ninja got caught by something. "Kakashi-Sensei!" Sakura cried as everyone looked to see Kakashi had both his arms around the ninja's necks. "But.. how..?" Naruto began to ask but Bradley tapped him on the shoulder to look and see the logs from Kakashi's substitution.

While Kakashi tied up their attackers, Naruto was in thought, thinking about his first real battle. "I.. I froze, I couldn't move. But Sasuke who was never in a real fight didn't even break a sweat, even Bradley helped fight those guys. They both saved my life." "Hey!" Naruto looked to see Sasuke calling him. "You're not hurt are you... scaredy cat?" Bradley literally heard Naruto growl at Sasuke as he put a hand on his friends shoulder. "It wasn't strength that made me fight back there I was panicking but I knew what would happen if I didn't do anything so I made a move." Naruto took his friends words and grabbed his hand saying. "Don't worry Brad next time it'll be me and you working together." "It better be you know how I feel about Uchiha." With that Bradley made his way over to Kakashi as he rubbed his hand and looked to see a small scratch with a small amount of blood but nothing major. "Huh, didn't even feel anything." He said to himself. Kakashi had been talking to the ninja and congratulated Bradley and Sasuke for their work even though Bradley didn't know how he suddenly created a sonic boom, but Kakashi was now looking at Tazuna. "Our mission is to protect you from bandits at the most nothing was said about fighting experienced shinobi. This should be at least a B rank mission" Tazuna simply looked to the ground as Kakashi continued. "You may have had your reasons but you should never lie when asking for help." Sakura then interrupted. "So we are not ready for this kind of mission so we should head back to the village so Naruto can be seen for his wound." Upon hearing this Bradley immediately turned and now saw Naruto's hand. "This is complicated" Kakashi thought as he was debating to cancel the mission to bring Naruto back.

But before Kakashi could say anything Naruto had thrust a kunai knife into the wound on his hand. " NARUTO STOP THAT WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Sakura yelled, Bradley was about to go over to Naruto but Kakashi held him back. Naruto then thought to himself; "Why am I so different? By now I should be really strong... but I blew it. Even with all the training I've been doing alone and with Brad every day. I swear, no-one's ever going to have to save me again... I'm not gonna be the one one who hangs back and freezes... And I'm not gonna be outdone by Sasuke!.. The only one who can be as strong as me is my one best friend... I swear by the pain in my left hand... With this Kunai knife, I promise you, I... Will protect the old man!" Naruto finally spoke up and looked at Kakashi. "REPORTING FIT FOR DUTY SENSEI!"

Bradley gave a smile and a thumbs up to his friend as Kakashi walked over to Naruto. "Naruto, we needed a free flow of blood to clean the poison that was on those ninja's claws from your wound, but it seems you've exceeded the need. You could bleed to death you know." Kakashi said in an unfitting happy tone and Naruto finally realised what had happened. "AAAAAAHHHHHH!" Bradley came over with Kakashi to check the wound "Relax show me your hand" Naruto gave Kakashi his hand to examine it. "It.. It's going to be okay right?" Naruto asked as Kakashi stared at what was left of the wound. "The wound is almost completely healed, I should have guessed it to be the power of the nine tailed fox." Kakashi thought to himself."You'll live." he said while Bradley looked back down at his hand thinking the scratch on his hand seemed to look a bit like what was left of Naruto's wound. Tazuna then walked up to Kakashi; "Mr. Hatake I.. I need to tell you all something.

Meanwhile in a forest just outside the land of waves in a small hut a meeting was taking place. "FAILED. I paid for the best and all I get is shit." Shouted a small man in sunglasses and a smart suit. He was about to continue until the man he was talking to held a huge blade inches away from his face. "Do quit you're whining, I will personally handle this." "But are you sur.." " Remember to whom you speak. I am Zabuza Momochi, the Demon of the Hidden Mist.

As the team drew closer to the village they took a small wooden boat to the shore passing the bridge. "It's huge!" Naruto said. Bradley was busy thinking about what Tazuna had told them before they got on the boat. "As you all have probably guessed this job is more dangerous than I said it was. There's a really bad man who wants me dead." "Who is he." Kakashi asked. "Gato." The name meant nothing to the kid's as they looked at each other and shrugged but Kakashi explained that Gato was one of the richest men in the world and that he owned a very large and successful shipping and transportation service and Tazuna continued. "While he appears legitimate he's really a ruthless murderer who employs gangs of shinobi and deals in all sorts of criminal affairs.

About a year ago he came and started taking over our land and eventually had all goods transport operating through him. The only thing that can stop him is the construction of the bridge." "So as the architect and overseer of the bridge you are very much in Gato's way Mr. Tazuna." Sakura explained. "That means that the ninja who attacked us were really after you and working with Gato." Sasuke said. "And if they were successful in getting you out of the way the construction of that bridge would come to a grinding halt." Bradley stated, while Naruto was just trying to keep up but Kakashi spoke up again. "But why didn't you say all this when you asked the village for help?" "Because I didn't have enough money to afford an elite ninja group as our land is not very wealthy, hiring you guys was the most I could afford." Then Bradley saw where the rest of this story was going as Tazuna started to guilt trip them talking about his grand son and daughter and Kakashi became putty in his hands. "Okay we will stay with you at least until you've returned home."

Back on the boat they finally arrived on the land, as Tazuna thanked the the boats sailor they made the final part of the journey to Tazuna's home. Bradley noticed Kakashi was just waiting for another attack. "Should I scout ahead sensei?" "No. With the unpredictability of your sonic booms you could alert anyone that we're here." Bradley still didn't know how he made a sonic boom without even trying to in his fight as he had to push himself to make one the first time. Naruto was now trying to prove himself better than Sasuke. " I'm not going to let him make me look bad again!" Naruto thought. But Kakashi suddenly stopped. "This is it." He thought."EVERYONE TAKE COVER!" And at that moment a huge gust of wind came out of nowhere so strong that everyone had to shield their eyes. When it finally stopped Bradley looked up to see a tall man with short black hair, striped trousers and black camo like sleeves with no top standing on the blade of the largest sword he'd ever seen that was embedded into a tree. "Finally, this my chance to show up Sasuke!" Naruto thought but Kakashi already raised a hand to prevent any of the team to come closer. "Well Zabuza Momochi formerly of the hidden mist. You guys stay back this one's on a whole different level to our last opponents. This may get a little rough!" As Kakashi spoke he was raising his hand to his headband pulling it off of his always covered left eye to finally open it.

Kakashi then revealed to have a red eye with three tomoe surrounding his pupil. "Wait how does Kakashi-Sensei have the.." But Bradley then looked over towards Sasuke who looked confused but Zabuza finally spoke up. "Kakashi of the Sharingan Eye, I'm honoured to face your power so early after meeting you." Naruto was confused upon hearing about this Sharingan not knowing what it was, but Bradley looked back at Sasuke asking him; "Uchiha, I thought the sharingan was an ability only known to members of your family." "So did I" Sasuke replied. "Wait you are all talking about this Sharingan what exactly is it?" Naruto demanded to know. Sasuke then spoke up and explained how the Sharingan was a powerful ocular ninjutsu that could see through any illusion or genjutsu and reflect the power of the jutsu's cast onto them and send it back on those who cast them. Then Zabuza interrupted to explain more. "Most formidable of all is how accurately the sharingan can discern and duplicate it's opponents greatest skills and jutsu's."

Zabuza went on saying how Kakashi was renowned for his talent in using the sharingan, so much so that he was known as the Copy Ninja and had duplicated over a thousand different jutsu's. The whole team was in shock, Sasuke was thinking to himself and Bradley was slowly bracing himself for the fight he was sure was going to come and sure enough it did. "As pleasant as this conversation is I'm on a tight schedule to make that old man disappear." At that moment Naruto, Bradley, Sasuke and Sakura surrounded Tazuna in a formation they had practised all holding Kunai as Kakashi stood ready. "Hmpf. Looks like I'll have to kill you first Kakashi." Zabuza then disappeared from the tree landing on a lake close to where everyone was standing, pointed his hands in the air and said: " **HIDDEN MIST JUTSU"** and with that a cloud of mist surrounded Zabuza and he was gone.

"He.. he's gone!" Sakura said nervously. Kakashi wasn't moving or saying anything as he was trying to anticipate Zabuza's first move. Bradley could hear everyone's heart beat it was so quiet everyone was waiting for something to happen but Kakashi broke the silence. "Calm down, even if he gets me I'll still protect you. I will always protect my comrades." "I wouldn't bet on it." At that moment Bradley looked over his shoulder and saw Zabuza standing in the middle of the teams protective formation, but before anyone could do anything Kakashi tackled Zabuza thrusting a kunai into his side. "Kakashi-Sensei behind you." Naruto cried as another Zabuza was rushing behind Kakashi as the one in front of him turned to water and fell to his feet. Zabuza then cut right through Kakashi's centre but that also turned out to be a water clone. "He copied that move so fast! Just as I expected from the copy ninja." As Kakashi appeared behind Zabuza with a kunai placed to his neck Zabuza just went silent and yet another Zabuza came behind and flung his gigantic sword causing Kakashi to duck but then being kicked in the ribs and sent flying into the lake nearby. "You fool you'd have to do more than copy a clone to defeat me." As Kakashi emerged from the water Zabuza appeared behind him and began to form hand-signs: **"WATER PRISON JUTSU!"**

With that a huge water sphere surrounded Kakashi trapping him inside. "That prison is inescapable so I wouldn't bother trying anything." Zabuza then gave a menacing look to the rest of the team and formed one hand-sign with his left hand as his right was used to keep the water prison together. A pool of water spewed out from the lake and began to take on the form of Zabuza but Bradley got the feeling that this was more than an ordinary water clone. "You kids who claim to be ninja even donning the headband of your village. Only those who have made it onto my list are worthy to be called ninja." Now the clone had fully become Zabuza and made a move to kick Naruto who was closest to the waters edge but Bradley stepped in to protect his friend but Zabuza sent them both back even making Naruto's headband fall off. Bradley managed to get up almost instantly but could taste his blood in his mouth from taking most of the force from the kick.

Sakura was now panicking and shaking while Sasuke just stood still as he genuinely didn't know what to do while Bradley stood over Naruto as he was still on the ground mostly un-harmed. "All of you take Tazuna and get away from here this is a fight you just can't win!." Kakashi shouted as everyone looked to see that Tazuna was still fine. "If the clone gets to far from the original it will simply disappear and Zabuza needs to stay still to keep Kakashi locked up." Bradley went over in his head while everyone was thinking the same. But Naruto looked down at his bandaged hand and remembered what he promised to himself. "I'm never gonna freeze up, I'm never gonna run and that starts NOW!" Naruto then ran pushing Bradley out of the way but the clone simply kicked Naruto back to Bradley, Sasuke and Sakura. "What were you thinking taking him on yourself Naruto you id..." But Bradley raised his hand to tell Sakura to stop as they looked to see Naruto holding his headband. Naruto slowly stood up and shouted back to Zabuza as he got himself ready. "Hey I've got some new candidates for your list right here. Two of them being the Leaf village's future Hokage." Naruto then tied the final knot in his headband and took a step forward. My name... IS NARUTO UZUMAKI!" The others were a little hesitant but Bradley immediately stood next to his friend. "And mine is, Bradley Furasshu!" Zabuza looked up upon hearing Bradley. "A Furasshu eh?" He thought to himself. Both Sakura and Sasuke took a step forward and were ready. "Bradley, Sasuke listen up I have a plan." Bradley now felt he could do anything as he nodded to Naruto, they both turned to Sasuke who nodded back with a smirk. "Hmf, what have you got?" Naruto then turned to face Zabuza again and shouted; "Then let's DO THIS!"

Zabuza simply looked back at the kids and laughed, Kakashi was now trying to convince his students to get away. "I told you to run, this fight was over the second he caught me. You have your duties to keep in mind, we are here to protect Mr. Tazuna!" The kids looked back to Tazuna who had his head down. "It's because of me that you are all in this mess, so you go ahead... give this fight everything you got!" He said with a smile. " Hehe I hope you're ready for this." Naruto exclaimed but Zabuza was still laughing but finally stopped to talk. "You kids all play ninja like it's a game. However by the time I was your age I had already stained my hand with the blood of my enemies." The kids were a little shaken upon hearing that and Kakashi then explained how ninja of the Hidden Mist had to do something terrible in order to graduate. "What do they have to do?" Naruto questioned. Zabuza remained silent but then spoke up. "I guess you could call it a killing spree of class mates." This shocked the whole team and Zabuza went on to explain that students of the hidden mist academy were forced to butcher their classmates in order to become a shinobi. However the elders had then called for a drastic reform but not before one year one student killed his entire class. "Let me guess." Bradley shouted; "Yes that was me, thats how I became known as Zabuza Momochi the Demon of the Mist!"

Just as Zabuza finished talking Sasuke darted straight for him but was sent upwards by an uppercut and in mid-air Zabuza grabbed his arm pulling Sasuke to the ground and stepping on his throat. "Time to die brat." But before Zabuza did anything both Naruto and Bradley formed different hand-signs; **"MULTI-SHADOW JUTSU!"** Naruto shouted; **" SPEED CLONE JUTSU!"** Bradley shouted and in a puff of smoke and in a blur tons of Naruto clones surrounded Zabuza and 5 speed clones of Bradley were at different angles of Zabuza. "Hmm shadow clones, quite a lot from that blonde kid but I expected more from a Furasshu just 5?" "READY OR NOT.." The clones said interrupting Zabuza's train of thought. " HERE WE COME!" At that moment all the Naruto clones jumped Zabuza causing him to step off Sasuke and Bradley zoomed in and got Sasuke out before all of Naruto's clones dog piled Zabuza.

But in another puff of smoke nearly all of the clones disappeared and Naruto was sent flying back but was caught by one of the 5 speed clones and Bradley then signalled those speed clones to attack Zabuza. The speed clones went in full throttle and were able to take a lot of Zabuza's attacks which surprised him. "So that Furasshu kid's clones are a lot tougher, guess I'll have to actually hurt them to get rid of them." And with one swing of his huge blade the clones all went blurry and disappeared. Zabuza then turned his attention towards Bradley and Sasuke. "SASUKE, BRADLEY!" The two looked to see Naruto reaching for something in his bag and Bradley responded throwing Sasuke towards Naruto just in time for Zabuza to land his sword right through Bradley's neck. "BRADLEY!" Naruto and Sakura cried, Zabuza was about to laugh until Bradley went blurry and then disappeared. "Another clone?" He thought to himself, then looked around but Bradley was no-where in sight; "Guess he's a bailer like the rest of his clan." "Sasuke!" Naruto repeated finally throwing Sasuke something "This is the last thing that could work" Naruto thought. "So this is what Naruto had in mind." Sasuke then unveiled what Naruto gave him to Zabuza, a demon wind shuriken.

Without hesitation Sasuke leapt into the air and flung the shuriken with full force. The Zabuza water clone was reaching for his blade but froze when he saw the shuriken fly right past him heading for the real Zabuza. "At least you've had the sense to target me." Zabuza taunted as he grabbed the shuriken with no problems, but then a second demon wind shuriken appeared from the shadows that surprised Zabuza but he simply jumped over it as he still held onto the first shuriken. While Sakura was worried that the plan had failed Sasuke simply smirked because with that in a puff of smoke the second demon wind shuriken was replaced with Naruto holding a kunai which got Zabuza's attention and with a loud boom from a few meters in front of him Bradley appeared on the waters edge. Sakura looked around to see the Naruto that threw the shuriken to Sasuke disappear revealing it to be a clone then looked to Bradley who was forming hand-signs she didn't recognise.

"You ready Naruto?" Bradley shouted as he made the final sign; "Let it rip!" Naruto replied as he threw the kunai towards Zabuza and Bradley then cast his jutsu: **"LIGHTNING STYLE: OVERLOAD JUTSU!"** Suddenly Bradley held his two hands out and a huge burst of lightning energy blasted towards Zabuza. Without any other way Zabuza released the water prison jumping to the left and the kunai that Naruto threw was disintegrated by Bradley's jutsu and before Naruto fell into the water Bradley grabbed him in mid-air and whizzed him back to land as he knew what was coming. "Check." Bradley thought to himself.

Zabuza was then about to throw the shuriken back at the kids but Kakashi was immediately back on his feat, his sharingan ready and was facing right in front of Zabuza. "You're plan was brilliant Naruto, and you all pulled it off. You've done extremely well." Naruto smiled but Bradley wasn't going to celebrate until this was over. Kakashi then spoke to Zabuza: "The same move never works on me twice its over." Both Kakashi and Zabuza jumped back and simultaneously made numerous hand-signs. "He's copying everything I do!" Zabuza thought to himself, with the final sign made they both shouted: **"WATER STYLE: WATER DRAGON JUTSU!"** With that two huge amounts of water in the shape of a dragon were launched at Zabuza and Kakashi and a huge wave of water came over the bank of the lake causing the team to take cover.

Zabuza was in shock he then began to form another hand sign but Kakashi beat him to it: **WATER STYLE: WATERFALL!"** "WHAT? How did he copy a jutsu before I was able to even finish it!?" Again a huge amount of water flooded the area this time even sending Zabuza flying backwards into a tree and Kakashi was on a branch above. "Can you... see into.. the future?" Zabuza asked. "I foresee your death!" Kakashi then lunged towards Zabuza. "And check ma..!" Bradley began to say but a bunch of small needles struck Zabuza and he fell to the floor. No-one knew what happened but then from a tree in the distance a figure in a mask came towards them. "Your prediction came true."

"Who is that?" Naruto asked and the masked one explained. "I'm a shinobi hunter from the village Hidden in the Mist, who was tasked with catching and killing Zabuza." Kakashi was thrown off from how young this hunter seemed to be, just a little older than his team. Naruto was about to start yelling about how this ninja who was about the same age killed Zabuza like it was nothing but Bradley stopped him saying Zabuza was a tough one for even Kakashi which seemed to quiet Naruto down. Kakashi then went to Zabuza's body with the hunter to check to see if he was dead, and after getting no pulse Kakashi allowed the hunter to take the body to be disposed of, and with a puff of smoke both the hunter and Zabuza's body were gone.

Kakashi then put his headband back over his eye as he told the kids their mission wasn't over and that they had done a brilliant job of handling Zabuza, but then Kakashi began to fall but Bradley ran and caught him before he hit the ground. "Kakashi-Sensei are you ok?" Sakura asked. "I may have used the Sharingan a little to much." Kakashi said. Tazuna then guided the team the rest of the way to his home.

At Tazuna's home they were greeted by his 28 year old daughter, Tsunami, who immediately lay Kakashi on a bed for him to rest. The kids all seemed restless but in an attempt to calm them down Tazuna assured them the worst had passed. "How long is your recovery going to take Kakashi-Sensei?" Bradley questioned. "After a fight like that about a week, the Sharingan can place a huge strain on your body."

Bradley didn't like the sound of having to hang around for a week. "Also Bradley well done on mastering another of your family's jutsu." "Thank you sensei." Sakura began to ask questions about the jutsu but most were answered by Naruto as Bradley had already explained to him when Bradley was training to use that jutsu. "It's almost like an electrical blast." Sakura said but was interrupted by Kakashi sitting up in his bed. "What is it Kakashi-Sensei?" Sakura asked. "I can't escape the feeling I've missed something. Usually shinobi hunters would dispose of bodies immediately on the spot not take them away. Also the weapon used to kill him seems odd, medical ninja acupuncture needles." At this point Bradley was starting to see where Kakashi was going as did Sasuke. "Wait sensei you don't mean that.." Bradley started; "Yes. It's very likely that Zabuza is still alive!" Everyone in the house was shocked to hear this as they all began asking Kakashi questions.

Meanwhile back at the forest near where team 7 fought Zabuza, the shinobi hunter was now speaking with Zabuza who was very much alive. "Awake already hmm?" "Move away Haku so I can get these damn needles out of me, and take off that stupid mask!" With that Haku removed the mask to reveal a feminine face. "Those ninja would have killed you if I hadn't intervened." Zabuza slowly sat up and moved to a tree to prop himself up ignoring Haku's comment. "Will you be alright... next time?" Haku asked. "Next time... I'LL KILL THEM ALL!" 


	4. Training is the Key

**Author's Notes: I found writing this chapter very technical as a lot of setup and dialogue happens in this part of the ark. But I hope for those reading are enjoying themselves and I hope you continue to read as I do have some good plans for this story in the near future. Enough rambling let's just get to the story.**

 **I don't own Naruto all rights belong to Masashi Kishimoto**

 **The Lightning Flash of the Leaf**

 **Chapter 4: Training is the Key**

"WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!?" Naruto shouted. "But you checked Zabuza's body to make sure he was dead Kakashi-Sensei!" Sakura exclaimed. Kakashi was now in thought as to try explain his thought on Zabuza still being alive and then began to speak. "I did but it's possible to have created a deathlike trance to fool me. Also the weapons that supposedly killed Zabuza were originally used as medical equipment and with the understanding of human physiology that any shinobi hunter of any village would know, it would be simple to place someone in a death like state. So with what I said before with that hunter taking Zabuza's body away instead of immediately disposing it and the possible use of those needles to make him seem dead suggests that the hunter made an illusion of Zabuza's death so that he could rescue him."

"Well that's just great but with that possibility how does it help us with what to do next sensei?" Bradley asked. "Now we can prepare knowing that Zabuza being alive is a possibility and we won't be caught off guard." "Sooo, how are we going to prepare?" Naruto questioned. "While I recover you 4 are going to be training." "But with Zabuza possibly back how do we know when he'll strike?" Sakura asked nervously, Bradley was about to answer her question but Kakashi beat him to it. " When someone has been placed in a death like state it can take quite some time for the body to recover." "What he said." Bradley muttered, Naruto then stood up looking ready. "Heh, so we train while we wait, I can't think of anything better."

Just then a small boy wearing dungarees and a fishing hat entered the room. Everyone turned to face him while Tazuna opened his arms to give him a hug; "Inari come give your grandpa a hug." "So this must be Tazuna's grand son." Bradley thought to himself. "Inari these are the ninja that helped me get home safe." Inari then looked over each member of the team, Naruto smiling back at him, Sakura waving at him, Sasuke not even looking at him and Bradley put his hand out for Inari to shake. But Inari paused and stared at the blank headband tied around Bradley's thigh and without hesitation kicked Bradley in the shin. "What the heck are you doing?!" Naruto asked angrily but Inari stood beside Tsunami who was his mom, Bradley just didn't know what he did to make Inari angry seeing as how he just met him but was thinking it had something to do with his family headband. "What would he know about my family?"

Tsunami told off Inari for what he did but Bradley interrupted: "What did I do to make you angry Inari?" Inari simply ignored Bradley, he then spoke to all of the team; "You're all going to die nobody can beat Gato or his men." "You little brat!" Bradley held Naruto back but Naruto got out of his grasp and shouted at Inari who was about to leave the room. "Hey kid, you are looking at the soon to become Hokage and even the guy you kicked will become one of the strongest ninja in the world, you can count on that!" Bradley stared at Inari who just stared back at him with a hateful look in his eyes. "If you think you can beat Gato you are just dumb. I'm going up to my room to look out at the ocean." With that Inari slammed the door and left the room and Naruto went to follow him.

Tazuna came over to Bradley to apologise to him. "I'm sorry about Inari, please forgive him." "Don't worry about it, heh I don't think he broke anything." Tazuna gave a small chuckle but it didn't last long. "Inari has suffered due to what Gato has done to our village." Bradley was thinking over in his head but he then decided to ask. "Inari seemed to kick me as soon as he saw my family headband, why and how does he know who my family are?" Bradley untied the headband from his thigh to show Tazuna but he seemed a little shocked. "Wait _this_ is your family headband?" "Yes I'm a member of the Furasshu clan but I was abandoned at the leaf village when I was a baby so I've never even met another member of my clan. Why does this shock you?" Tazuna then sighed as he handed the blank headband back.

"A few members of the Furasshu clan were in the land of waves." "Wait what do you mean, what would my clan be doing here?" Bradley seemed to have trouble processing what he heard "Wait I thought the Furasshu were nomads?" Sakura asked while Bradley was shocked to hear that the family that he was ridiculed for being associated with was here "and why was there only a few?" Bradley asked but Kakashi then spoke up; " The Furasshu travel all over the world and in order to finance themselves they would visit villages often to trade and sell goods and they would only send in a few members as not to put the whole clan in any form of danger." Tazuna then continued; "When they arrived people at first were worried as the Furasshu had never come to our village before and we have heard not such glowing rumours of their lives but when they showed signs of peace and offered to trade rare goods with us we had to take them up on their offer, it was only short but both the village and the Furasshu made quite a lot of money." "Then if my clan helped your village why does Inari not seem to like them?" Bradley asked and Tazuna sighed.

"The Furasshu were still here when Gato started to take control, he tried to pay them to leave but they refused and kept trading. Gato went as far as to send ninja to kill them at the inn they stayed at, but that whole inn was destroyed in an electrical explosion and not one of Gato's men survived. Gato then attacked again in broad daylight in the middle of town destroying everything, peoples homes, peoples work just to get them to come out but... the Furasshu had just got up and left."

Bradley was starting to see why Inari didn't care for his clan: "So they ran away when they quite clearly showed they had the power to stop Gato and even let people's lives be destroyed just so they could escape." "Some people think the Furasshu accepted Gato's offer while some think they just left to save their own skin." "And what does Inari think?" Bradley asked, Tazuna was thinking before he answered. "Inari thought that the Furasshu could have saved us from Gato but they chose not to." Bradley felt disgusted that his clan only fought back when they themselves were in trouble but did nothing to help the people of the village he clenched his fist and turned to face Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi.

"Well unlike my clan I don't plan on running away. We are going to kill Zabuza and his partner then Gato is next!" Sakura was shouting at Bradley about how stupid he sounded, Sasuke mumbled something that Bradley didn't hear but Naruto had come back saying he was ready to help Bradley stop Zabuza, then Kakashi called for their attention. "Well Bradley if you are so eager to stop Zabuza then you are going to have to start training now." "So what kind of training do you have in mind Kakashi-Sensei?" Bradley asked as he was ready to get straight to work. "All 4 of you need a better understanding of chakra control so that is what we will be working on." "How do train for that Kakashi-Sensei?" Sakura asked. "We climb trees!" With that Tsunami gave Kakashi a pair of crutches as he and the 4 kids made their way outside.

Kakashi then stopped in the middle of a small forest close to Tazuna's home as Sakura and himself gave a huge lecture on the nature of chakra. "We already know what chakra is sensei, so how do we gain better control by climbing trees?" No sooner had Bradley asked Kakashi had charged up his chakra for a moment and began hobbling on his crutches towards a tree and then began climbing the tree by simply walking up the side until he was standing upside down on a branch. "Like so." Kakashi said. "You will be gaining better control of chakra by channelling it into a specific part of your body, in this case your feet, in order to climb the tree, understand?" "And if we can accomplish this it will make us stronger?" Bradley asked. "Yes, if you can gain control of your chakra then no jutsu is beyond you. (In theory anyway)"

"Alright enough chat, LET'S DO THIS BRAD!" Naruto shouted after everyone charged their chakra, except for Bradley who seemed to be just waiting for them, everyone charged at a tree with a kunai in hand to mark their progress. BAAM! Naruto took two steps on the tree and fell face first to the ground as he hadn't enough chakra in his feet, while Sasuke got a bit higher but was launched back as he had too much chakra which threw him off balance. "Well that's the difference between Naruto and Sasuke in a nutshell." Kakashi thought, Bradley pulled Naruto to his feet as he hadn't even started yet but everyone looked up to see Sakura sitting on one of the tallest branches on the tree "That was easier than I thought." She said with a cute giggle while Naruto praised her and Sasuke ignored her. "Well it seems Sakura is the most powerful in comparison but Bradley are you even going to try, I thought you wanted to beat Zabuza?" Bradley clenched his fist at Kakashi's comment, he looked around then he decided on a tree. "This seems the tallest." Bradley thought to himself. He stood directly in front of the tree and with a big WHOOSH Bradley was balancing on the very top of the tree. "WOAH, way to go Brad!" Naruto cheered, Sakura was shocked and Sasuke didn't say anything but Kakashi called Bradley down.

"Bradley, with your clans history I now realise this form of chakra control training won't work for you as your clan is born with perfect chakra control within most of your body which is how you have such extreme speed, so I have another training method specifically for you." While the others continued with the tree climbing Kakashi explained the exercise to Bradley. "As we now know you can reach supper sonic speeds now, but you have little to no control over it." Bradley agreed as he completely lost focus when he made a sonic boom for the first time on his way to the land of waves and without even meaning to he made another sonic boom in a really short distance during his first fight, Kakashi then continued; "If you can gain control of your new found speed you won't only be able to run faster but you'll be able to implement your sonic booms into your taijutsu." "So how do I control my sonic booms Kakashi-Sensei?" "You must use your chakra to surround your body in order to suppress the booms while simultaneously increasing your speed." "So while Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke only have to channel chakra to their feet while slowly climbing a tree I have to channel chakra throughout my entire body while moving at high speeds?" "That's about the jist of it." Bradley just chuckled to himself. "Seems fair."

Bradley first began charging his chakra, while in this calm state he could hear everything from the peaceful sound of the wind to the not so peaceful sound of Naruto constantly slamming to the forest floor, Bradley could even feel the presence of his team through their chakra. "When you feel your ready start running, stick to the forest it will serve as an effective obstacle course." With Kakashi's final tip Bradley began running. Bradley's first task was to try reach super sonic he thought back to when he first achieved that speed. "I just pushed to do better for myself, so if I want to show Inari that at least one Furasshu won't let him down I have to push myself for not just me but for my team and for Inari. Then Zabuza and Gato are **MINE!** " Suddenly without Bradley noticing a loud boom shook him off balance and tripped and rolled until he just skidded to a halt. "You really think you can defeat Zabuza when you can't even run right?" Bradley looked up to see Inari standing over him looking as angry at him as when they first met, Bradley got to his feet and began regaining his chakra. "Inari I promise to my team, to myself and to you that we will stop Gato and Zabuza and I won't run away like my other clan members. I can be a hero for your village." "Hero.. You idiot there's no such thing." Inari said. With that Bradley zoomed off to continue with his training. "If they stayed... then daddy.." But he stopped himself from thinking about it and he went back home

The 5th Day of Training

Bradley was panting and out of breath, he couldn't remember the last time he ran so much. So far he was only able to contain some sonic booms but even when he managed to suppress them it would cause him to lose balance and would send him flying. On one occasion Bradley managed to suppress a sonic boom for a while and he then released it from his fists and it forced the trunk of a tree to explode. "It takes a lot of chakra to suppress the booms but when I speed up I find it harder to contain the blast so I lose balance and I keep falling." Bradley kept going over it in his mind trying to think of another way of successfully passing this training. Kakashi was watching both Bradley when he could and the other 3. Kakashi remembered seeing Naruto ask Sakura for advise on climbing the tree one of the days and Sasuke even asked for advice, not directly but he hinted at it. "It's a bit of a shame Bradley, only you can accomplish your training and sadly there isn't anyone you can really ask." Kakashi thought to himself.

That evening at dinner Bradley was still trying to think of a way to control the sonic booms but was interrupted by Tsunami reminding him to eat. Naruto and Sasuke were scoffing down their food so fast that before Tsunami sat down to eat her dinner they were asking for seconds, but before she could answer both of the boys threw up as they had eaten too quickly. "I know you guys need food food to train but throwing it back up isn't exactly going to help." Bradley said sarcastically. When everyone was finished Bradley zoomed around the diner table and began cleaning the plates against Tsunami's wishes saying that she would do it. Sakura walked over to look at a lone picture on the wall that had Inari, Tsunami and Tazuna but someone else was torn from the photo. "Why is the picture torn? I ask because Inari seemed to be staring at it the whole time during dinner." Bradley turned to see Tsunami, Tazuna and Inari all with their heads down in silence. The silence was shortly broken by Tsunami. "It was a picture of us and Inari's father." Then Tazuna spoke up; "Once upon a time you could say our village called him a hero." But as soon as Tazuna stopped to take a breath Inari got away from the dinner table, made his way to his room and slammed the door. Tsunami yelled at Tazuna for what he said and she hurried after Inari.

The room became quiet again as Bradley quickly finished the dishes and sat back at the table beside Naruto but Tazuna could tell that everyone was confused about what was going on. "The man in that picture was not Inari's birth father, but they were as close as a true father and son could be, Inari was such a happy boy back then. But he changed after what happened to his father." Tazuna went on to talk about how Inari and the man he then called dad, who's name was Kaiza met. One day Inari was being bullied by some kids and was thrown into the river, but Inari couldn't swim. He passed out from the pain of nearly drowning and awoke on dry land with the people who saved him. "Your finally awake son. If it wasn't for these guys I don't think I would have had enough time to save you." "Inari said aswell as Kaiza and himself 4 other people were there all wearing blank ninja headbands." Hearing Tazuna talk about the blank headbands caused Bradley to jolt straight up attentively. "Wait you mean the members of the Furasshu that were in the village saved Inari?"

"They were trading some goods with Kaiza who was a fisher man at the time and Kaiza noticed Inari in the water, immediately one of the Furasshu ran onto the water and pulled Inari out and ran him back to shore where Kaiza and one of the medics on the Furasshu's team treated Inari. Kaiza fed Inari and brought him back home as did the Furasshu ninja, and from that day Inari's admiration and affection for Kaiza grew and grew and Inari saw his father as a hero. Inari also thanked and grew to respect the Furasshu ninja for saving him." Bradley wanted to ask Tazuna what more he knew about his clan but he restrained himself as he knew that the Furasshu wasn't the reason Tazuna was telling this story.

"Kaiza was the kind of hero this village needed. Himself and even the Furasshu ninja helped save this town from a horrific storm. While two of the ninja attempted to try calm the storm with jutsu, one was treating people who had been injured by the storm and another one worked with Kaiza to help stop the storm from flooding a huge part of the village. Both the ninja and Kaiza seemed to trust each other and worked well together and Inari was proud to have a dad and friends like them in his life... But then Gato came to the village. After some of the events I already talked about like the ninja blowing up the inn to kill some of Gato's men happened, Gato did something horrible that changed Inari and scarred the entire village.." Tazuna paused and even shook from just the thought of what happened that day but calmed down a bit when Kakashi put a hand on his shoulder and asked him to continue. "In front of the entire village Gato had Kaiza... **put to death!** "

Everyone was so stunned they couldn't say anything. "Gato publicly executed him claiming he had committed crimes against the land and his company and he was to be killed, and Inari saw everything. When Kaiza was killed, as if the heavens themselves were angry a freak lightning storm occurred and a bolt of lightning nearly struck Gato but he was pushed out of the way by one of his body guards. When inspected it was declared that the lightning strike killed him immediately sending thousands of volts of electricity throughout his body and he was burned to a crisp. It was from that day that Inari lost everything: hope, the respect of the Furasshu and the love of his father."

Bradley thought back to when he saw Inari when he was training when Inari said there was no such thing as a hero. Bradley suddenly stood up from the table and made his way to the door. "What do you think you're doing?" Sakura squealed. "After spending a whole day training you can't just keep going without rest, it can have disastrous consequences." Kakashi warned. "I don't care. I'm going to prove to Inari that there are heroes and that not all Furasshu's abandon their friends." Naruto then got up to the table to follow Bradley, they talked outside for a bit as they walked to where in the forest they trained. "So how has your training been going Brad?" "Too slow for my liking, I need to come up with a way of generating a steady flow of chakra to suppress the sonic booms while running. How about you Naruto? From what I saw even Uchiha is finding it a bit difficult." "Yeah but Sasuke is still getting further up the tree than I am." Naruto then pointed at his tree then Sasuke's as they arrived. "I will beat Sasuke though, Sakura gave me some advice." "Then you better put her advice to good work." Bradley said while giving Naruto a nudge, just as Bradley was putting on his goggles and mask he turned back to Naruto who was about to start charging chakra. "Hey maybe Sakura is starting to warm up to you huh?" Naruto lost his concentration as his face turned red and Bradley just laughed as he whizzed of to begin his all night training.

Early Morning on the 6th Day of Training

Bradley was tapped awake by someone he at first guessed was Naruto telling him to get breakfast, but as he slowly opened his eyes Bradley saw a beautiful looking girl with long dark black hair wearing a pink kimono standing over him. "Umm... when did this happen?" Bradley asked sarcastically hoping that the she wouldn't get the wrong idea, but she just gave a cute little giggle. "Oh there you are Brad!" Bradley sat up to see Naruto coming towards him with herbs in his arms that he handed to the girl. "I got the herbs you wanted." "Thank you but now I find two boys asleep in the forest. Were you training all night too?" Bradley simply nodded and he pointed to a collapsed tree that he managed for the second time to release a sonic boom on command but he was so tired when it happened he couldn't remember how exactly he did it. "So what are you training for?" She asked. Naruto and Bradley looked at each other as they both replied at the same time. "To become stronger!" "But why?" She asked again. Naruto this time spoke for himself. "I'm going to become Hokage and the strongest one ever, so everyone in my village will stop disrespecting me and think of me as somebody. Plus I have a little score to settle at the moment." Naruto then pointed at the tree he was practising on and he still hadn't reached the height that Sasuke had.

She then turned to Bradley: "What about you?" Bradley thought it over in his head but he then gave his answer. " I have always wanted to be strong so that I could be like Naruto and become Hokage with him but... while I still want that I'm not making myself stronger for just my team, or just for Naruto, or even just for myself. I'm making myself stronger for anyone who needs my help!" She just smiled back at him: "So you want to protect people? I believe one becomes stronger when they have someone truly precious to them they have to protect." Both Bradley and Naruto thought of when Kakashi said he would do anything to protect his team and when Kaiza protected the village for everyone and Inari and even the time when they protected Iruka from Mizuki. Naruto even remembered when Bradley protected him from Mizuki's shuriken. So both boys nodded in a agreement with the girl as she got up to leave. "I know that the two of you **will** become a lot stronger. I also know we'll meet again so you should know... I'm a boy." Bradley had to let that sink in for a minute while but Naruto just couldn't help but shout. "WHAAAAAAAT!" Bradley just thought to himself: "Well... he had me fooled." Then Sasuke came over to them asking what they were doing as he immediately began training and without skipping a heartbeat Naruto and Bradley high fived each other and went back to training aswell. But not before Bradley asked Naruto: "What was the advice Sakura gave you about chakra control." And with pleasure Naruto told his friend what Sakura told him.

The Next Morning, 7th Day of Training

"Where did Naruto and Bradley go off to **this** time?" Sakura complained as both herself and Kakashi were looking in the forest for Bradley, Naruto and Sasuke. "Well Naruto and Bradley were up all last night training again and Sasuke said he was going for a walk this morning and he disappeared." But then a kunai landed right in front of Kakashi and Sakura causing them to look up and see Naruto hanging upside down by his feet on one of the highest branches on the tree. Kakashi congratulated Naruto but was interrupted when Naruto lost concentration and lost contact with the branch and was about to fall. But then Sasuke landed on the branch and grabbed Naruto's leg giving a smug look that of course Sakura applauded. But then due to the weight of both Naruto and Sasuke the branch broke under the weight but just as they began falling Bradley zoomed in front of the tree. "Bradley quick, run up the tree and grab Sasuke... and Naruto" Sakura screamed. Bradley just smirked at Kakashi as Bradley looked like he was about to jump and just before he left the ground... **BOOM!** Bradley was launched high into the air to Sakura and Kakashi's amazement, as he grabbed Naruto and Sasuke's arms and Bradley then ran them down the tree back to the ground.

"You have all come such a long way." Kakashi said proudly, Bradley, Naruto and Sasuke were out of breath from what just happened. "I think if both Naruto and Sasuke keep training by this evening you could reach the very top of the trees. And Bradley you seem to have gained the ability of controlling the blasts of the sonic booms, even causing them to explode on command from different parts of your body. Keep training when you can to fully master it but I think you can go with Sakura to watch over Tazuna while he builds the bridge today. Good work all of you." With that Bradley and Naruto fist bumped each other goodbye as Bradley followed Sakura to the bridge. "I actually have to thank you for the advice you gave Naruto Sakura, it helped me too. Who knew it was something as simple as focusing your mind and leaving everything else blank." Sakura actually smiled at Bradley and they both spent the day watching Tazuna build the bridge.

That night back at Zabuza's hut, Zabuza got out of his bed for the first time since he had awoken from the death like trance. "Your energy seems to have returned master Zabuza." Haku replied. "Good, tomorrow Haku we make Kakashi and those Leaf village brats pay!"

At the same time at Tazuna's house as Bradley, Sakura and Tazuna returned from the bridge, Sasuke and Naruto hobbled in looking completely exhausted. Bradley took Naruto while Sakura took Sasuke. "Well?" Kakashi asked. Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other and actually smiled. "WE DID IT!" Naruto replied happily getting a thumbs up from Bradley and a congratulations from Kakashi. Even Tazuna was smiling; "With the help from Bradley's speed the bridge shouldn't take much longer, but still none of us should work ourselves to death." Everyone was smiling but Naruto and Bradley were laughing. But that stopped when Inari came in and just stared at Bradley and Naruto. "Is something wrong Inari?" Bradley asked. "why..." Inari began. "What's up?" Naruto questioned. **"WHY HAVE YOU TWO BEEN WEARING YOURSELVES OUT TRAINING OVER THE PAST WEEK, THERE'S NO POINT NO-ONE CAN BEAT GATO AND HIS THUGS! YOU ACT COOL AND TALK TOUGH BUT YOU WILL JUST RUN AWAY AND ABANDON US. YOU'RE GOING TO BE DESTROYED"** Everyone was caught unaware from Inari's rage but Naruto and Bradley remained calm. "We talk tough because we are tough." Naruto returned. "We are NOT going to run away or abandon you either." Bradley declared, but both Naruto and Bradley said together: "AND WE ARE NOT GOING TO LOSE!" But this seemed to make Inari angrier and more upset. **"YOU TWO DON'T KNOW ANYTHING. YOU'RE ALWAYS CLOWNING AROUND AND HAVING FUN, YOU DON'T KNOW A THING ABOUT LONELINESS OR SUFFERING. YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING"**

Naruto and Bradley were completely silent as Kakashi looked over at them but then they looked Inari dead in the eye's. "So... you think it's better to treat people like guests at your pity party while you do nothing but cry?" Naruto asked but before Inari could even answer Bradley stood up and slammed his fist on the table: "Yeah cause it takes a real big man sit around and do nothing but cry... you **brat!** " At that moment both Bradley and Naruto left the table with there hands in their pockets as they went to their room. Sakura yelled after them for going to far. They looked at Inari one more time and both just said: "You big baby." Inari didn't know what to say or how to react, he just went outside to sit by the river. He sat their for a while and Kakashi asked if he could join him.

"I know both Naruto and Brad can sometimes act like a pair of brats but they weren't trying to be mean, it's just that what you said hit home for them. Tazuna told us about what happened to your father Kaiza. Like you, both Brad and Naruto grew up without a father, they actually had no parents and no friends except for each other. For the both of them most of their childhood is just one painful memory. And ever since I've known them they have never used their troubles to sulk or be a coward, not once. All that they strived for was for someone to give them a kind word, a pat on the back or just attention. That's their dream and they have both risked their lives for it. I think that one day they just got fed up with crying. Just like your father both Naruto and Brad know what it means and what it costs to be strong. They both probably understand you and how you feel better than anyone else."

Inari looked up at Kakashi when he heard that. "Naruto may not be the brightest and Bradley may be a Furasshu and have the headband but... they both want to show you that you can trust and have faith in them and that they wont let you down and that they will protect you like your father and the Furasshu once did." Kakashi got up but Inari was letting everything he heard sink in but Tsunami called him for bed. Kakashi and Inari walked back to the house, Inari still thinking about what Kakashi had said and about what Bradley and Naruto must have been through to get to where they were today.

The Next Morning, Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi were getting ready to leave to escort Tazuna to the bridge. "Are you sure you feel ok Kakashi-Sensei?" Sakura asked but Kakashi assured her that he was ok. "Please look after Naruto and Brad for us. They would be worn out so they probably won't move for the day." "Of course no problem." "Thanks Tsunami, well we'll be off now." Kakashi thanked Tsunami again and they left the house. About an hour or two later Naruto came bursting into the kitchen asking Tsunami where everyone was. "Well the rest of your team went to the bridge with father, but Bradley is still asleep upstairs. Kakashi said that the two you would probably be out of it for the rest of the day." As soon as Naruto heard that he ran upstairs to get his things and stuck his head in to check on Bradley who was fast asleep. "You'll catch up." Naruto thought to himself as he said goodbye to Tsunami and Inari and left for the bridge.

At the bridge Zabuza and his accomplice, Haku, were back! "So we have the Copy Ninja and 2 brats, where's the blonde and Furasshu brats?" At that moment four water clones of Zabuza surrounded the team but before they could do anything Sasuke had destroyed all the clones in one swift strike. Sasuke then looked towards Haku; "You are mine, that was quite a show you put on before but we're onto you tricks now!" "Wow Sasuke you're so cool!" Sakura squealed and Kakashi simply sighed. "You are an impressive kid." Haku replied with almost no emotion. "We are still on the offensive, GO!" "Yes Zabuza." With that both Sasuke and Haku charged at each ready to fight.

As the fight between Sasuke and Haku started so did the fight between Zabuza and Kakashi. Sakura was keeping guard over Tazuna and could do nothing but watch. The speed in which Haku was fighting was incredible the only person Sasuke had seen fight with that kind of speed was Bradley when they would practise sparring, but Sasuke was managing to keep up but was starting to tire. Haku then caught Sasuke in a deadlock between his kunai and Haku's needle. "I'll give you one chance, you can walk away from this, I don't want to kill you." "Don't be stupid I'm not going anywhere!" "I thought as much but if you look to the ground I have you trapped." Sasuke took a second to evaluate his surroundings to see that there were puddles of water everywhere from when he destroyed Zabuza's water clones, and incredibly using one hand Haku formed a series of hand-signs and the water began freezing and creating a dome of ice: **SECRET TECHNIQUE: DEMONIC MIRRORING ICE CRYSTALS**. "Sasuke!" Sakura screamed. Suddenly ice mirrors surrounded Sasuke but just as Haku entered one of the mirrors Naruto burst into the dome out of nowhere breaking one of the mirrors.

"You idiot." "Well I was hardly going to let you have all the fun." Naruto then stared towards Haku "Bring it on!" "As you wish." With that the fight between Sasuke, Naruto and Haku began. While Kakashi suddenly thought to himself. "If they are attacking the bridge they could go after Tazuna's family! Bradley I hope you have enough energy to help them... then help us."

Back at Tazuna's house Inari looked into where Bradley was staying and he was still fast asleep. Inari then thought back to what Kakashi said to him the night before about Naruto and Bradley, but was interrupted by his mother asking for his help with the chores. Just before Inari entered the kitchen he heard the door being smashed in and heard his mother scream. Inari ran into the kitchen to see two thugs both with swords, one with no shirt but covered in tattoos and was quite muscular, the other smaller thinner and wore a hoodie and a hat. "MAMA!" The two thugs turned to see Inari and one slowly began to walk towards him. "INARI RUN AWAY!" Inari at first hesitated but then ran upstairs to Bradley's room for help but when he opened the door... Bradley was gone.

The smaller thug then grabbed Inari by his collar and dragged him back downstairs. "but.. but he was there a minute ago. He said he would never run away... **liar!** Inari thought to himself. The thug then threw Inari onto the floor in front of Tsunami. "So what should we do with the kid?" "I don't know we only need one hostage." The bigger thug then drew his sword and pointed it at Inari. "WAIT!" Tsunami shouted grabbing the thugs attention. "I will go without any problems if you leave my son alone but if you kill him I'll kill myself." Inari was shaking and the two thugs looked at each other then to Inari as they sheathed their swords. "You better be grateful to your ma' kiddo." With that the thugs went and tied Tsunami's hands picked her up and walked her out of the house. Inari began crying to himself: "I'm sorry mama, I'm weak and.. and I'm scared I don't want to die." "You big baby."

Suddenly Bradley and Naruto's voice entered Inari's head. Inari then thought back about what everything he heard from Kakashi, Naruto and Bradley. Inari then stood up and wiped his eyes and clenched his fists. "There is no-one else to rely on now, I have to save mama." With that Inari sprinted out the door and ran towards the thugs. "INARI!" Tsunami screamed. "Jeez this kid is annoying. Cut him?" "Yeah" At that point, the two thugs had their swords out as Inari was running straight at them with his fist out and eyes closed. "YOU GET AWAY FROM MY MAMA!"

 **BOOOOOOM!**

The two thugs were shaken as they didn't know what just happened but they turned to see that Tsunami was gone. Then they looked straight ahead to see Tsunami and Inari on the ground with someone with a huge lightning bolt and red circled swirl on the back of his jacket. Inari then looked up nearly crying when he saw Bradley standing over him. "You didn't really think I ran off did ya?" Bradley said with a wink. "Wait ain't that supposedly one of Tazuna's body guards?" Bradley then turned to face the two thugs. "Supposedly? I AM ONE OF TAZUNA'S BODY GUARDS!" "Wait he's a Furasshu look at the blank headband." "When we bring your head to Gato we will be rich!" The two of them lunged at Bradley but he just stood there when suddenly two more Brad's jumped over him, both releasing a sonic boom to each of the thugs.

The smaller one was sent hurtling through Tazuna's house wall knocking him out easy and the bigger one was sent flying into the lake. The two speed clones disappeared as Bradley commanded, the thug in the water began swimming towards Bradley who was kneeling at the river bank. "WHEN I GET MY HAND ON YOU YOU AR...!" But he froze when he saw Bradley forming hand-signs then slamming his hands into the water. **"LIGHTNING STYLE: OVERLOAD JUTSU!"** Suddenly the entire lake became an electrical mine field and the thug was knocked out from the electricity running through him. Just as he began to sink Bradley ran out and tied the two thugs up and then untied Tsunami.

Inari immediately hugged his mother and Bradley was about to run off but Inari pulled at his jacket. "Bradley, I'm sorry for thinking you lied and ran off. If it wasn't for you I would be dead and those men would have taken mama away." "Don't worry about it I'm not one to hold a grudge (unless it's Uchiha). But I owe you an apology. For last night when Naruto and I called you a baby, cause after what I saw you're obviously not." Inari looked up confused. "What do you mean?" "Well you ran after those idiots to save your mother no baby would do that. Only someone who was truly strong would do that, you really are strong Inari." Bradley then put his hand on Inari's head and Inari began to tear up but was trying to stop himself. "What's up?" Bradley asked. "I promised myself I wouldn't cry, now you'll make fun of me." Bradley simply shook his head no. "There's nothing wrong about crying when your happy." Bradley then gave Inari a smile as he then looked back at the thugs.

"What is it Brad?" Inari asked. "If they attacked here it's logical to assume that the bridge is being attacked aswell. I have to go join back up with my team, can't let Naruto hog the hero spotlight can we?" "Inari you keep up the good work and look after your mother, don't worry about those two they aren't going anywhere. You think you can be a hero for your mom?" Inari then put out his hand for Bradley to shake which he did. "YOU BET! Tell Naruto I said thanks." "Will do." With that Bradley zoomed off towards the bridge. "I hope the teams ok." Bradley then released a sonic boom and speed up greatly.

But Bradley was unaware of what had happened on the bridge. Haku was completely destroying Naruto and Sasuke with his Kekke Genkai. Sasuke even had to awaken his own Sharingan but even that wasn't enough. Naruto was able to dodge Haku's attacks for the most part but ended up being played into a position that he couldn't escape, causing Sasuke to take the full blow of the attack. It currently looks bad for Sasuke and has caused Naruto to snap and something no-one expected began to happen. 


End file.
